Kutubuan

Kutubuan is a small family of Papuan languages named after Lake Kutubu, an upland lake in the Southern Highlands that drains into the Kikori River. It has two branches whose speakers face each other across the water: East Kutubuan, comprising Foe and Fiwaga, and West Kutubuan, comprising Fasu, Some and Namumi. The branches share little vocabulary, and how closely they are related remains debated; both are placed in the tentative Papuan Gulf grouping.

The Foe live along the southern shore and the Fasu along the northern, fishing and tending gardens on the slopes. Long sealed in the interior, these communities were unknown to Europeans when Yñigo Ortiz de Retez named New Guinea in 1545, and outsiders did not reach the lake until the colonial era.