Tehit

Tehit is a Papuan language of the southwestern Bird's Head Peninsula in Southwest Papua, centred around Teminabuan. It belongs to the West Bird's Head family, apparently related to the North Halmahera languages. Long contact with Austronesian tongues gave it an atypical subject-verb-object order and borrowed pronouns and numerals.

These shores and islands were at the heart of the maritime network woven from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the Biak war leader Gurabesi and his Tidore patrons. The sultanate claimed suzerainty over Raja Ampat and the western Vogelkop; Austronesian seafaring terms and trade contacts entered Tehit speech in that era.

The Spanish expedition of Luís Vaz de Torres passed the New Guinea coast in 1606. Tehit dialects and clan life continued under the loose overlordship of Tidore and the Raja Ampat rajas.