Markham

The Markham languages form a family of the Huon Gulf group within the Oceanic branch of Austronesian, comprising about a dozen tongues spoken in the Markham and Ramu valleys and the neighbouring lowlands of Madang and Morobe provinces in northern Papua New Guinea. Many Markham languages are spoken far inland, in the mountain valleys of Morobe, where they meet the Trans–New Guinea languages of the highlands.

They divide into a Lower Markham group, including Wampar, Labu and Duwet, and an Upper Markham group headed by Adzera. Centuries of contact with Papuan neighbours have left a heavy imprint on their vocabulary and grammar.

The lower Markham River reaches the sea at Markham Bay on the Huon Gulf, whose coasts were first charted by Europeans in the 1790s, when the French expedition of d'Entrecasteaux sailed these waters.