Halhaheran-Guinean

The Halhaheran-Guinean group corresponds to the South Halmahera–West New Guinea branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, itself part of the Austronesian family. Its roughly 38 languages are strung along the shores and islands of the Halmahera Sea and Cenderawasih Bay in eastern Indonesia, including the South Halmaheran, Biak, Yapen and Waropen languages.

Linguists place the parent language's homeland on the southern shore of Cenderawasih Bay some 3500 years ago, and hold these languages to be among the closest relatives of the Oceanic languages spread across the Pacific.

Many members are known only from short word lists, though Biak, Taba and a few others are well documented; Biak spread across a wide arc of islands from the Schoutens to Raja Ampat, carried by maritime trade networks.