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Big Mama Thornton

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter of the blues and R&B.

The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul described Thornton saying "Her booming voice, sometimes 200-pound frame, and exuberant stage manner had audiences stomping their feet and shouting encouragement in R&B theaters from coast to coast from the early 1950s on".

Thornton was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog", in 1952, which was written for her. It became Thornton's biggest hit, selling over 500,000 copies and staying seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B chart in 1953. According to New York University music professor Maureen Mahon, "the song is seen as an important beginning of rock-and-roll, especially in its use of the guitar as the key instrument".

Thornton's other recordings include her song "Ball and Chain", made famous in the late 1960s by Janis Joplin. Though later recordings of her songs by other artists sold millions of copies, she was denied royalties by not holding the publishing copyrights to her creativity. Thornton died of a heart attack and liver disorders, penniless in a boarding-house in Los Angeles, California and was buried in a shared pauper's grave. In 2024, Thornton was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category.

Early life
Thornton was born on December 11, 1926, the sixth of George and Mattie (née Haynes) Thornton's seven children. While Thornton's birth certificate states that she was born in Ariton, Alabama, in an interview with Arhoolie Records producer Chris Strachwitz, she claimed Montgomery, Alabama, as her birthplace, perhaps because Montgomery was better known than Ariton.

She was introduced to music in a Baptist church, where her father was a minister and her mother a singer. Thornton said "I used to go to church a lot, but I didn’t do too much singing in church".

Thornton's mother fell gravely ill from tuberculosis. Only 13, Thornton cared for her mother until her death in the Montgomery Tuberculosis Sanatorium in 1939. At the time Thornton was still in the third grade. After losing her mother, she was unable to continue to attend school. Thornton left school and got a job washing and cleaning spittoons in a local tavern.

Self-taught singer and musician
Thornton's talent was self taught. She said "My singing comes from my experience... My own experience. I never had no one teach me nothin'. I never went to school for music or nothin'. I taught myself to sing and to blow harmonica and even to play drums by watchin’ other people! I can't read music, but I know what I'm singing! I don't sing like nobody but myself".

When Thornton was 8 years old, she taught herself to play the harmonica by watching her older brother, Calliope "Harp" Thornton. Observing the rhythm-and-blues singers Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie, whom she deeply admired, helped develop her singing talent. "I just started hearing the blues of Bessie Smith, well I was a kid myself, you know. I was a young type of youngster always running around the house humming the blues and my daddy wanted to get me with the razor strop, but I hit the door".

Thornton explained her early love of the blues, saying "My father was a minister. He's a Baptist preacher, and my mother she was very religious. And me, I don't know what I am, I'm -- well, [I] was just born with the blues... I really got the blues, you know, in '39 when I lost my mother, and then I said, 'Well, I don't know what to do'. I said, 'Well, I think I want to sing the blues'. So I said, well, [at] that time, I was listening to Big Maceo, his "Worried Life Blues" and I said 'I think I want to sing that', and I did. That was a beautiful number. Yeah."

Hired after first audition
Thornton's talent was discovered in 1940 when she was fourteen years old. Diamond Teeth Mary, the half-sister of one of her early idols Bessie Smith, encouraged her to enter a talent contest after having heard Thornton singing while working a side-job on a garbage truck.

Thornton described the audition during a 1970 Studs Terkel radio interview, saying "Show came through in the first of the '40s and called it 'Sammy Green's Hot Harlem Revue' as I mentioned earlier. They didn't have a singer, and so I asked him, I said, 'Give me an audition, let me sing'. I said, 'I've been singing all the little talent shows around here'. He said, 'Oh, little 'ole girl, you can't sing'. I said, 'Will you give me a try?' He said, 'Yeah, well, when the show start, say we gonna give a little audition for singers, 'cause I'm looking for a singer'. And so he give auditions. So I was there, he wrote my name down, and several people they sung, and then he said, 'Well, I, I want to see what you can do'. So I got up there, I had an old pair of jeans, one leg rolled up, I got up and I started singing one of Louis Jordan's song called "G.I. Jive", and I sung that song, and I sang this blues by Big Maceo, "Worried Life Blues" and he hired me. Out of 25 people, I was the 26th but then he hired me".

Left home to perform at 14 years old
14 year-old Thornton left home, traveling with the show between different cities in Alabama and Georgia. Thornton described the revue as "a stage show, like, playing in theaters... dancers, chorus girls, comedians, singers". Originally hired as a dancer, singer and comedienne, Thornton quickly became known as the "New Bessie Smith" for her vocal talent.

Thornton left Green's show in 1948 over a money dispute, saying "I traveled with them for quite a few years, and I went to Houston, Texas in ’48. We played there and then we left. As a matter of fact, I quit the show in ’48... They owed me a little, quite a bit of money and they wouldn’t pay it, and I just got tired".

Start of recording career in Houston
Thornton moved to Houston and started singing at the Eldorado Ballroom for fifty dollars a night. In 1950, Thornton recorded her first record, "All Right Baby" and "Bad Luck Got My Man", released on Houston's E&W Recording Studio record label and credited to the "Harlem All Stars". Thornton was credited as songwriter on both songs.

Thornton moved to the Bronze Peacock Dinner Club which was owned by impresario and record producer Don Robey. In 1950 she signed a five-year recording contract with Robey's Peacock Records. Her first Peacock record "No Jody For Me / Let Your Tears Fall Baby" was a local hit in the Houston area, but did not catch on nationally. Thornton needed additional income to live, so she started shining shoes to get by.

Joined Johnny Otis' Caravan
In 1952, Don Robey struck a deal with impresario Johnny Otis, allowing Peacock Records artists who had not broken through to national success to travel with Otis' California Rhythm and Blues Caravan to gain experience and exposure. The deal included recording the artists in Los Angeles and giving the recordings to Robey for distribution. Thornton was one of the artists Otis selected.

Named "Big Mama"
During the revue's appearance at Harlem's Apollo Theatre in December, 1952, Thornton did not have a hit single of her own to sing. She sang a version of the Billy Ward and his Dominoes hit "Have Mercy Baby". The audience went wild for Thornton and would not stop until the stage manager brought the curtain down in order to move the show on. Thornton said "...that's where they made their mistake. They put me on first. I wasn't out there to put no one off stage. I was out there to get known and I did!... They had to put the curtain down. That's when they put my name in lights. Mr. Frank Shiffman, the manager came back stage hollerin' to Johnny Otis... 'You said you had a star and you got a star. You got to put her on to close the show!" The next night, the Apollo marquee read "Big Mama Thornton".

"Hound Dog"
While working with Otis, Thornton recorded "Hound Dog" in 1952, the first record produced by its writers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The pair were present at the recording, with Leiber demonstrating the song in the vocal style they had envisioned; Stoller said "We wanted her to growl it." Thornton said "Don't tell me how to sing no song", but relented. Otis played drums, after the original drummer was unable to play an adequate part. Thornton's song is credited as helping to usher in the dawn of rock and roll.

Thornton realized her record was being broadcast while traveling to a Dayton, Ohio performance. "I was going to the theater and I just turned the radio on in the car and the man said, 'Here's a record that's going nationwide: "Hound Dog" by Willie Mae Thornton'. I said, That's me! I hadn't heard the record in so long. So when we get to the theater they was blasting it. You could hear it from the theater, from the loudspeaker. They were just playing "Hound Dog" all over the theater. So I goes up in the operating room, I say, 'Do you mind playing that again?'... 'Cause I hadn't heard the record in so long I forgot the words myself. So I stood there while he was playing it, listening to it. So that evening I sang it on the show, and everybody went for it".

"Hound Dog" was Thornton's only hit record, selling over 500,000 copies, spending 14 weeks in the R&B charts, including seven weeks at number one. Although the record made Thornton a star, she reportedly saw little of the profits. Thornton never received full credit for recording the original version of the song. She claimed she received just one royalty check for $500 from her version that spent seven weeks as number one on the 1953 Billboard R&B chart. Rolling Stone quoted her as having said, "Didn’t get no money from them at all. Everybody livin’ in a house but me. I'm just livin".

Thornton's success with "Hound Dog" was overshadowed three years later when Elvis Presley recorded a hit version of the song. Presley had heard a sanitized version of “Hound Dog” performed by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys while attending their show at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. Bell had removed Thornton's growling declaration of leaving a cheating partner. Bell changed the song, the new lyrics were sung to a literal dog. Presley's version sold ten million copies, so today few fans know that "Hound Dog" began as Thornton's "anthem of black Women's power".

1950s career
Thornton continued with Johnny Otis's band between 1951 and 1954. The 30 recordings she made for the Peacock label during that time are considered "remarkable for the vocal presence and total cohesiveness". Thornton performed in R&B package tours with Junior Parker and Esther Phillips and continued to record for Peacock until 1957. Thornton did not have another hit record.

Johnny Ace's death
While performing Christmas Day 1954 at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas, Thornton tried to intervene as fellow Duke and Peacock record performer Johnny Ace was playing with a new .22 cal. revolver in the backstage dressing room during that evening's show.

In an official deposition taken at 12:40 am the next morning, Thornton said "I looked over at Johnny and noticed he had a pistol in his hand. It was a pistol that he bought somewhere in Florida. It was a .22 cal. revolver. Johnny was pointing this pistol at Mary Carter and Joe Hamilton. He was kind of waving it around. I asked Johnny to let me see the gun. He gave it to me and when I turned the chamber a .22 cal. bullet fell out in my hand. Johnny told me to put it back in where it wouldn’t fall out. I put it back and gave it to him. I told him not to snap it at nobody".

Ace did not heed Thornton's advice. "After he got the pistol back, Johnny pointed the pistol at Mary Carter and pulled the trigger. It snapped... I told Johnny again not to snap the pistol at anybody. Johnny then put the pistol to Olivia’s head and pulled the trigger. It snapped. Johnny said 'I’ll show you that it won't shoot'. He held the pistol up and looked at it first and then put it to his head. I started toward the door and I heard the pistol go off. I turned around and saw Johnny falling to the floor. I saw that he was shot and I run on stage and told the people in the band about it. I stayed there until the officers arrived".

1960s career
As her career began to fade in the late 1950s and early 1960s, she left Houston and relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, playing clubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Her performances were infrequent so she could not retain a steady group of musicians to back her. Chris Strachwitz said when Thornton was booked to perform in a good venue like the Fillmore, her manager at the time, Jim Moore, would hire "lounge musicians. He called them 'jazz musicians' or whatever... they had no clue what the blues was all about. They were mediocre at the best".

While living in the Bay Area, Thorton recorded for a succession of labels, including Bay-Tone, Irma, Kent, Sotoplay and the Berkeley-based Arhoolie Records.

"Ball And Chain"
In 1961 Thornton wrote another signature song, "Ball And Chain". The song relates the feelings of a woman who has been mistreated by her partner. Thornton assigned the song's copyright to Bay-Tone Records, a small, independent San Francisco record company in 1961. Bay-Tone released three of Thornton's singles, including "You Did Me Wrong / Big Mama's Blues". However the label chose not to release her "Ball And Chain" recording and instead held on to the copyright. This caused Thornton to once again miss out on the publishing royalties when her song was recorded by another artist and became a hit. During her later efforts to secure the royalties from the song, Thornton described how she had written the song 9 years before she recorded it, saying "I was singing that way before I recorded it".

After hearing Thornton perform the song at the Both/And Club on Divisadero Street in San Francisco, Big Brother and the Holding Company's vocalist Janis Joplin and guitarist James Gurley approached her and asked permission to cover "Ball And Chain". Thornton agreed. Gurley slowed the blues song, using a minor key. The band performed their version of "Ball And Chain" at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. The crowd was stunned. Band guitarist Sam Andrew joked "This was no ‘wear flowers in your hair’ song". Subsequently, the band released their version of the song on their album Cheap Thrills in August 1968. The album remained at the top spot of the Billboard Hot 200 charts for two months. Joplin's interpretation of the song renewed interest in Thornton, boosting her career.

In a 1972 interview, Thornton acknowledged receiving royalty payments after having given Joplin permission to record her song, saying "I gave her the right and the permission to make 'Ball 'n' Chain' . . . It's all right, it made me money. At least I got paid for it, and I'm still drawing royalties". With the success of Big Brother's Cheap Thrills album, Arhoolie Records released Thornton's recording of "Ball And Chain" as a way to capitalize on the success of Joplin's cover.

First European tour
In 1965, Thornton toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival where she was "celebrated by adoring fans". Reviews of the tour said "Thornton dazzles European audiences who are experiencing her live for the first time". Her success was notable "because very few female blues singers at that time had ever enjoyed success across the Atlantic".

Arhoolie recordings
While in London on October 20, she recorded her first album for Arhoolie, Big Mama Thornton – In Europe. It featured backing by blues veterans Buddy Guy (guitar), Fred Below (drums), Eddie Boyd (keyboards), Jimmy Lee Robinson (bass), and Walter "Shakey" Horton (harmonica), except for two songs (and a third as a bonus track on the 2005 CD reissue) on which Fred McDowell provided acoustic slide guitar. Music producer Chris Strachwitz said "Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton is in my opinion the greatest female blues singer of this and any other decade" in the album's liner notes.

In 1966, Thornton recorded her second album for Arhoolie, Big Mama Thornton with the Muddy Waters Blues Band – 1966, with Muddy Waters (guitar), Sammy Lawhorn (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica), Otis Spann (piano), Luther Johnson (bass guitar), and Francis Clay (drums).

Thornton performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 and 1968. Her last album for Arhoolie, Ball n' Chain, was released in 1968. It was made up of tracks from her two previous albums, plus her composition "Ball And Chain" and the standard "Wade in the Water". A small combo, including her frequent guitarist Edward "Bee" Houston, provided backup for the two songs.

Later recordings
By 1969, Thornton had signed with Mercury Records, which released her most successful album, Stronger Than Dirt, which reached number 198 in the Billboard Top 200 record chart. Next, Thornton signed a contract with Pentagram Records and finally fulfilled one of her biggest dreams. A blues woman and the daughter of a preacher, Thornton loved the blues and what she called the "good singing" of gospel artists like the Dixie Hummingbirds and Mahalia Jackson. She had always wanted to record a gospel record, and did so with the album Saved (PE 10005). The album includes the gospel classics "Oh, Happy Day", "Down By The Riverside", "Glory, Glory Hallelujah", "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", "Lord Save Me", "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "One More River", and "Go Down Moses".

By then, the American blues revival had come to an end. While the original blues acts like Thornton mostly played smaller venues, younger people played their versions of blues in massive arenas for big money. Since the blues had seeped into other genres of music, the blues musician no longer needed impoverishment or geography for substantiation; the style was enough.

Second European tour
While at home the offers became fewer and smaller, things changed for good in 1972, when Thornton was asked to rejoin the American Folk Blues Festival tour. She thought of Europe as a good place for herself, and, with the lack of engagements in the United States, she agreed happily. The tour, beginning on March 2, took Thornton to Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, where it ended on March 27 in Stockholm. With her on the bill were Eddie Boyd, Big Joe Williams, Robert Pete Williams, T- Bone Walker, Paul Lenart, Hartley Severns, Edward Taylor and Vinton Johnson. As in 1965, they garnered recognition and respect from other musicians who wanted to see them.

Late career
In the 1970s, the damage from years of heavy drinking began to visibly affect Thornton's health. She was in a serious auto accident but recovered to perform at the 1973 Newport Jazz Festival with Muddy Waters, B. B. King, and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. The Blues — A Real Summit Meeting, a recording of this performance was released by Buddha Records). Thornton's last albums were Jail and Sassy Mama for Vanguard Records in 1975. Jail captured her performances during mid-1970s concerts at two prisons in the northwestern United States. Other songs from this recording session were released in 2000 on Big Mama Swings (the third disc in The Complete Vanguard Recordings set).

She was backed by a blues ensemble that featured sustained jams by George "Harmonica" Smith and included the guitarists Doug MacLeod, Bee Houston and Steve Wachsman, the drummer Todd Nelson, saxophonist Bill Potter, bassist Bruce Sieverson, and pianist J. D. Nicholson. She toured extensively through the United States and Canada, played at the Juneteenth Blues Fest in Houston, sharing the bill with John Lee Hooker.

She performed at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1979 and the Newport Jazz Festival in 1980. Thornton also performed in the "Blues Is a Woman" concert that year, alongside Sippie Wallace, sporting a man's three-piece suit, straw hat, and gold watch. She sat at center stage and played pieces she wanted to play, which were not on the program. Thornton took part in the Tribal Stomp at Monterey Fairgrounds, the Third Annual Sacramento Blues Festival, and the Los Angeles Bicentennial Blues with B. B. King and Muddy Waters. She was a guest on an ABC-TV special hosted by actor Hal Holbrook and was joined by Aretha Franklin and toured through the club scene. She was also part of the award-winning PBS television special Three Generations of the blues with Sippie Wallace and Jeannie Cheatham.

Death and burial
Thornton was found dead at age 57 by medical personnel in a Los Angeles boarding house on July 25, 1984. She died of heart and liver disorders due to her longstanding alcohol abuse. She had lost 355 lb in a short time as a result of illness, her weight dropping from 450 to 95 lb.

Thornton was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles County, California. Her pauper's grave features a small granite marker with two additional names, indicating her body was buried along with two strangers.

Summing up her life, Thornton said "I’ve been happy. There have been dull moments, but you have to take as worse as you going to get it or else you are never going to see it. And I’ve been happy and I’d like to stay that way".

Style
Thornton's performances were characterized by her deep, powerful voice and strong sense of self. She was given her nickname, "Big Mama," by Frank Schiffman, the manager of Harlem's Apollo Theater, because of her strong voice, size, and personality. Thornton stated that she was louder than any microphone and did not want a microphone to ever be as loud as she was. Alice Echols, the author of a biography of Janis Joplin, said that Thornton could sing in a "pretty voice" but did not want to.

Her style was heavily influenced by gospel music that she listened to growing up in the home of a preacher, though her genre could be described as blues. Thornton was quoted in a 1980 article in The New York Times: "when I was comin' up, listening to Bessie Smith and all, they sung from their heart and soul and expressed themselves. That's why when I do a song by Jimmy Reed or somebody, I have my own way of singing it. Because I don't want to be Jimmy Reed, I want to be me. I like to put myself into whatever I'm doin' so I can feel it".

Scholars such as Maureen Mahon have praised Thornton for subverting traditional roles of Black or African-American women. She added a black woman's voice to a field that was dominated by white males, and her strong personality transgressed stereotypes of what a Black or African-American woman should be. This transgression was an integral part of her performance and stage persona.

Scholar Tyina Steptoe has written that Thornton's gender nonconformity helped to establish rock 'n' roll as a rebellious form of music. She says that Thornton should be understood as queer.

Legacy
During her career, Thornton was nominated for Blues Music Awards six times.

In addition to "Ball 'n' Chain" and "They Call Me Big Mama," Thornton wrote 20 blues songs. Her "Ball 'n' Chain" is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". It was not until Janis Joplin covered Thornton's "Ball 'n' Chain" that it became a hit. Though Thornton did not receive financial compensation for her song, Joplin arranged for Thornton to open shows for her. Joplin found her singing voice through Thornton, who praised Joplin's version of "Ball 'n' Chain", saying, "That girl feels like I do".

Thornton subsequently received greater recognition for her popular songs, but she is still under appreciated for her influence on the blues, rock and roll and soul music. Thornton's music was also influential in shaping American popular music. The lack of appreciation she received for "Hound Dog" and "Ball 'n' Chain" as they became popular hits is representative of the lack of recognition she received during her career as a whole. Many critics argue that Thornton's lack of recognition in the music industry is a reflection of an era of racial segregation in the United States, both physically and in the music industry. Scholars suggest that Thornton's lack of access to broader audiences (both white and black), may have been a barrier to her commercial success as both a vocalist and a composer.

In 2004, the nonprofit Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, named for Thornton, was founded to offer a musical education to girls from ages eight to 18. The first biography of Thornton, Big Mama Thornton: The Life and Music, by Michael Spörke, was published in 2014.

In 2022, Thornton was featured as a character in Elvis, a biopic about Elvis Presley. In the movie, Thornton (played by Shonka Dukureh in her only film role, as she died shortly after the film's release) is shown as the original singer of the song "Hound Dog" and appears in the movie singing the song. Presley (played by Austin Butler) hears Thornton sing "Hound Dog" at a concert and decides to record a cover of the song. Dukureh's performance of "Hound Dog" was included in full on the movie soundtrack. The movie and soundtrack were both critical and commercial hits, giving greater public attention to Thornton.

In 2024, Thornton was selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category.

Accolades

 * 1953: "Hound Dog" (Single), Peacock Records, Best Rhythm and Blues song, Cash Box magazine
 * 1979: San Francisco Blues Festival Award
 * 1984: Inductee, Blues Hall of Fame, Blues Foundation, Memphis, Tennessee
 * 2006: Classic of Blues Recording - Single or Album Track, "Hound Dog" (Single), Peacock Records, Blues Hall of Fame, Blues Foundation, Memphis, Tennessee
 * 2013: GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Award, "Hound Dog" (Single), Peacock Records (1953)
 * 2017: Inductee, National Recording Registry, "Hound Dog" (Single), Peacock Records, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
 * 2020: Inductee, Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Tuscumbia, Alabama
 * 2024: Inductee, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Musical influence category, Cleveland, Ohio

Discography
This is a partial discography.

Compilations
Source:, except where indicated

title: Big Mama Thornton


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Orokolo language

Orokolo is a Trans–New Guinea language spoken in Ihu Rural LLG, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea by about 50,000 people (2010). Alternate names are Bailala, Haira, Kaipi, Kairu-Kaura, Muro, Muru, Vailala, and West Elema. It is spoken in various villages, including Vailala (-7.94557°N, 145.42768°W).

Literature
This first New Testament (Pupu Oharo Āre ) was translated by the Rev. S. H. Dewdney, a Congregational missionary with the London Missionary Society, and Lavako Maika, an evangelist. It was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1963. Genesis, called Genese, was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in Australia in 1970. Ruth, called Rute, was published by the Bible Society in Australia, in 1972.

title: Orokolo language


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Trans–New Guinea languages

Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands, a region corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as parts of Indonesia.

Trans–New Guinea is perhaps the third-largest language family in the world by number of languages. The core of the family is considered to be established, but its boundaries and overall membership are uncertain. The languages are spoken by around 3 million people. There have been several main proposals as to its internal classification.

History of the proposal
Although Papuan languages for the most part are poorly documented, several of the branches of Trans–New Guinea have been recognized for some time. The Eleman languages were first proposed by S. Ray in 1907, parts of Marind were recognized by Ray and JHP Murray in 1918, and the Rai Coast languages in 1919, again by Ray.

The precursor of the Trans–New Guinea family was Stephen Wurm's 1960 proposal of an East New Guinea Highlands family. Although broken up by Malcolm Ross in 2005, it united different branches of what became TNG for the first time, linking Engan, Chimbu–Wahgi, Goroka, and Kainantu. (Duna and Kalam were added in 1971.) Then in 1970, Clemens Voorhoeve and Kenneth McElhanon noted 91 lexical resemblances between the Central and South New Guinea (CSNG) and Finisterre–Huon families, which they had respectively established a few years earlier. Although they did not work out regular sound correspondences, and so could not distinguish between cognates due to genealogical relationship, cognates due to borrowing, and chance resemblances, their research was taken seriously. They chose the name Trans–New Guinea because this new family was the first to span New Guinea, from the Bomberai Peninsula of western West Irian to the Huon Peninsula of eastern PNG. They also noted possible cognates in other families Wurm would later add to TNG: Wurm's East New Guinea Highlands, Binandere in the 'Bird's Tail' of PNG, and two families that John Z'graggen would later (1971, 1975) unite in his 100-language Madang–Adelbert Range family.

In 1975, Wurm accepted Voorhoeve and McElhanon's suspicions about further connections, as well as Z'graggen's work, and postulated additional links to, among others, the languages of the island of Timor to the west of New Guinea, Angan, Goilalan, Koiarian, Dagan, Eleman, Wissel Lakes, the erstwhile Dani-Kwerba family, and the erstwhile Trans-Fly–Bulaka River family (which he had established in 1970), expanding TNG into an enormous language phylum that covered most of the island of New Guinea, as well as Timor and neighboring islands, and included over 500 languages spoken by some 2,300,000 people. However, part of the evidence for this was typological, and Wurm stated that he did not expect it to stand up well to scrutiny. Although he based the phylum on characteristic personal pronouns, several of the branches had no pronouns in common with the rest of the family, or even had pronouns related to non-TNG families, but were included because they were grammatically similar to TNG. Other families that had typical TNG pronouns were excluded because they did not resemble other TNG families in their grammatical structure.

Because grammatical typology is readily borrowed—many of the Austronesian languages in New Guinea have grammatical structures similar to their Papuan neighbors, for example, and conversely many Papuan languages resemble typical Austronesian languages typologically—other linguists were skeptical. William A. Foley rejected Wurm's and even some of Voorhoeve's results, and he broke much of TNG into its constituent parts: several dozen small but clearly valid families, plus a number of apparent isolates.

In 2005, Malcolm Ross published a draft proposal re-evaluating Trans–New Guinea, and found what he believed to be overwhelming evidence for a reduced version of the phylum, based solely on lexical resemblances, which retained as much as 85% of Wurm's hypothesis, though some of it tentatively.

The strongest lexical evidence for any language family is shared morphological paradigms, especially highly irregular or suppletive paradigms with bound morphology, because these are extremely resistant to borrowing. For example, the fact that German words gut "good" and besser "better" resemble their English counterparts would be stronger evidence that German is related to English than the mere lexical correspondence between German rot and English red for the color. However, because of the great morphological complexity of many Papuan languages, and the poor state of documentation of nearly all, in New Guinea this approach is essentially restricted to comparing pronouns. Ross reconstructed pronouns sets for Foley's basic families and compared these reconstructions, rather than using a direct mass comparison of all Papuan languages; attempted to then reconstruct the ancestral pronouns of the proto-Trans–New Guinea language, such as *ni "we", *ŋgi "you", *i "they"; and then compared poorly supported branches directly to this reconstruction. Families required two apparent cognates to be included. However, if any language in a family was a match, the family was considered a match, greatly increasing the likelihood of coincidental resemblances, and because the plural forms are related to the singular forms, a match of 1sg and 1pl, although satisfying Ross's requirement of two matches, is not actually two independent matches, again increasing the likelihood of spurious matches. In addition, Ross counted forms like *a as a match to 2sg *ga, so that all counted as matches to *ga. And although and  occur in Papuan pronouns at twice the level expected by their occurrence in pronouns elsewhere in the world, they do not correlate with each other as they would if they reflected a language family. That is, it is argued that Ross's pronouns do not support the validity of Trans–New Guinea, and do not reveal which families might belong to it.

Ross also included in his proposal several better-attested families for non-pronominal evidence, despite a lack of pronouns common to other branches of TNG, and he suggested that there may be other families that would have been included if they had been better attested. Several additional families are only tentatively linked to TNG. Because the boundaries of Ross's proposal are based primarily on a single parameter, the pronouns, all internal structure remains tentative.

The languages
Most TNG languages are spoken by only a few thousand people, with only seven (Melpa, Kuman, Enga, Huli, Western Dani, Makasae, and Ekari) being spoken by more than 100,000. The most populous language outside of mainland New Guinea is Makasae of East Timor, with 100,000 speakers throughout the eastern part of the country. Enga is the most populous Trans-New Guinea language spoken in New Guinea, with more than 200,000 speakers. Golin, Sinasina, Mid Grand Valley Dani, Kamano, and Bunaq have between 50,000 and 100,000 speakers (Galela of Halmahera, usually not classified as Trans-New Guinea, also has between 50,000 and 100,000 speakers.) All other Trans–New Guinea languages have fewer than 50,000 speakers.

The greatest linguistic diversity in Ross's Trans–New Guinea proposal, and therefore perhaps the location of the proto-Trans–New Guinea homeland, is in the interior highlands of Papua New Guinea, in the central-to-eastern New Guinea cordillera where Wurm first posited his East New Guinea Highlands family. Indonesian Papua and the Papuan Peninsula of Papua New Guinea (the "bird's tail") have fewer and more widely extended branches of TNG, and were therefore likely settled by TNG speakers after the proto-language broke up.

Ross speculates that the TNG family may have spread with the high population densities that resulted from the domestication of taro, settling quickly in the highland valleys along the length of the cordillera but spreading much more slowly into the malarial lowlands, and not at all into areas such as the Sepik River valley where the people already had yam agriculture, which thus supported high population densities. Ross suggests that TNG may have arrived at its western limit, the islands near Timor, perhaps four to 4.5 thousand years ago, before the expansion of Austronesian into this area. Roger Blench associates the spread of Trans–New Guinea languages with the domestication of the banana.

Wurm, Voorhoeve & McElhanon (1975)
Wurm et al. identify the subdivisions in their Papuan classification as families (on the order of relatedness of the Germanic languages), stocks (on the order of the Indo-European languages), and phyla (on the order of the Nostratic hypothesis). Trans-New Guinea is a phylum in this terminology. A language that is not related to any other at a family level or below is called an isolate in this scheme.

('Family-level' groups are listed in boldface)

 * ?Oksapmin isolate [inclusion dubious]
 * Morwap isolate
 * Molof isolate
 * Usku isolate
 * Tofamna isolate
 * Eleman stock
 * Eleman family
 * Purari isolate (Koriki, Namau)
 * Tate isolate
 * Inland Gulf stock
 * Ipiko isolate
 * Minanibai family (incl. Karami)
 * Kaure stock
 * Kaure family
 * Kapori isolate
 * Sause isolate
 * Kolopom (Frederik Hendrik Island) family
 * Nimboran family
 * Goliath family (Mek)
 * Northern, or Border–Tor–Lake Plain super-stock
 * Border stock
 * Waris family
 * Taikat family
 * Bewani family
 * Tor – Lake Plain stock
 * Tor family
 * Turu family
 * Central Lake Plain family
 * Uria isolate
 * Mawes isolate
 * Pauwasi stock
 * Eastern family
 * Western family (Dubu, Towei)
 * Senagi family
 * South Bird's Head (Vogelkop) stock
 * South Bird's Head family
 * Inanwatan family
 * Konda–Yahadian family
 * Timor–Alor–Pantar stock
 * Bunak isolate
 * Makasai isolate
 * Oirata isolate
 * Fataluku (Dagodá) isolate
 * Lovaea isolate
 * Kairui isolate
 * Alor–Pantar family
 * Teberan–Pawaian superstock
 * Teberan family
 * Pawaia isolate
 * Turama–Kikorian stock
 * Mena or Turama–Omatian family
 * Kairi (Dumu) isolate
 * Trans-Fly – Bulaka River superstock
 * Bulaka River family (Yelmek–Maklew)
 * Trans-Fly stock
 * Kiwaian family
 * Tirio family
 * Eastern Trans-Fly family
 * Pahoturi River family
 * Morehead & Upper Maro Rivers family:
 * Nambu subfamily
 * Tonda subfamily
 * Yey isolate
 * Moraori isolate
 * Madang – Adelbert Range subphylum
 * Madang superstock
 * Rai Coast stock
 * Evapia family (Asas, Dumpu, Kesawai, Sausi, Sinsauru)
 * Mindjim family
 * Kabenau family (Arawum, Kolom, Siroi, Lemio, Pulabu)
 * Yaganon family
 * Peka family (Usino, Sumau, Urigina, Danaru)
 * Nuru family (Usu, Erima, Duduela, Kwato, Rerau, Jilim, Yangulam)
 * Mabuso stock
 * Kare isolate
 * Kokon family
 * Gum family
 * Hanseman family
 * Adelbert Range superstock
 * Mugil isolate
 * Isumrud stock
 * Dimir isolate
 * Kowan family
 * Mabuan family
 * Pihom stock
 * Amaimon isolate
 * Kaukombaran family
 * Kumilan family
 * Numagenan family
 * Omosan family
 * Tiboran family
 * Josephstaal stock
 * Osum isolate
 * Wadaginam isolate
 * Sikan family
 * Pomoikan family
 * Wanang stock
 * Paynamar isolate
 * Atan family (Atemble, Angaua)
 * Emuan family (Emerum, Musak)
 * Brahman family (membership per Z'graggen)
 * Main Section:
 * Eastern TNG subphylum
 * Binandere stock
 * Guhu-Semane isolate
 * Binandere family
 * Goilalan family
 * Koiarian family
 * Kwalean family
 * Manubaran family
 * Yareban family
 * Mailuan family
 * Dagan family
 * Central and Western TNG subphylum
 * Finisterre-Huon superstock
 * Huon stock
 * Kovai isolate
 * Eastern Huon family
 * Western Huon family
 * Finisterre stock
 * Erap family
 * Wantoat family
 * Gusap–Mot family
 * Warup family
 * Yupna family
 * Uruwa family
 * Abaga isolate
 * East New Guinea Highlands stock
 * Eastern family (= Kainantu)
 * Gadsup–Auyana–Awa subfamily
 * Tairora subfamily
 * Owena isolate
 * East-Central family (= Goroka)
 * Gende (Bundi) isolate
 * Siane subfamily
 * Gahuku subfamily
 * Kamano subfamily
 * Fore subfamily
 * Central family (= Chimbu–Wahgi)
 * Chimbu subfamily
 * Wahgi subfamily
 * Jimi subfamily
 * Hagen subfamily
 * West-Central family (= Engan)
 * Enga subfamily
 * Huli isolate
 * Angal (Mendi)–Kewa subfamily
 * Kalam family
 * Wiru isolate
 * Kenati (Aziana) isolate
 * Central and South New Guinea – Kutubuan superstock
 * Kutubuan stock
 * West Kutubu family
 * East Kutubu family
 * Central and South New Guinea stock (in the Central Highlands and Arafura Coast)
 * Bosavi family
 * East Strickland family
 * Awin–Pa family
 * Duna or Duna–Bogaya family
 * Ok family
 * Awyu–Dumut family
 * Asmat–Kamoro family
 * Somahai isolate
 * Mombum family
 * Angan family
 * Angaataha isolate
 * Angan subfamily
 * Gogodala–Suki stock
 * Suki isolate
 * Gogodala family
 * Marind stock
 * Boazi family
 * Marind family
 * Yaqay family
 * Kayagar family
 * Sentani stock
 * Sentani family
 * Demta isolate
 * Dani or Dani–Kwerba stock
 * Dani family
 * Kwerba family
 * Samarokena isolate
 * Saberi isolate
 * Dem isolate
 * Wissel Lakes – Kemandoga stock
 * Uhunduni (Amung) isolate
 * Ekagi–Wodani–Moni family
 * Mairasi – Tanah Merah stock
 * Mairasi family
 * Tanah Merah isolate
 * West Bomberai stock
 * Karas isolate
 * West Bomberai family
 * Mor isolate

Foley (2003)
As of 2003, William A. Foley accepted the core of TNG: "The fact, for example, that a great swath of languages in New Guinea from the Huon Peninsula to the highlands of Irian Jaya mark the object of a transitive verb with a set of verbal prefixes, a first person singular in /n/ and second person singular in a velar stop, is overwhelming evidence that these languages are all genetically related; the likelihood of such a system being borrowed vanishingly small." He considered the relationship between the Finisterre–Huon, Eastern Highlands (Kainantu–Gorokan), and Irian Highlands (Dani – Paniai Lakes) families (and presumably some other smaller ones) to be established, and he said that it is "highly likely" that the Madang family belongs as well. He considered it possible, but not yet demonstrated, that the Enga, Chimbu, Binandere, Angan, Ok, Awyu, Asmat (perhaps closest to Ok and Awyu), Mek, Sentani, and the seven small language families of the tail of Papua New Guinea (Koiarian, Goilalan, etc., which he maintains have not been shown to be closely related to each other) may belong to TNG as well.

Ross (2005)
TNG map.svg' conception of Trans–New Guinea. The greatest TNG diversity is in the eastern highlands. (After Ross 2005.)

Irian Jaya, W to E {{legend|#E00000|South Bird's Head}} {{legend|#5DFF00|West Trans–New Guinea}} {{legend|#AD00FF|Kaure–Kapori}} {{legend|#FFCA6D|Pauwasi}} {{legend|#D5D300|Mek}} {{legend|#FF9600|Asmat–Kamoro}} {{legend|#FF3800|Awyu–Dumut}} {{legend|#D82600|Ok}} {{legend|#7EB00A|Kayagar}} {{legend|#FFFF00|Marind}} {{legend|#FFD3B6|Kolopom}}

PNG highlands, W to E {{legend|#3684B6|Awin–Pa}} {{legend|#CD5C6F|East Strickland}} {{legend|#A400AD|Duna}} {{legend|#00D327|Bosavi}} {{legend|#FF3BB6|Engan}} {{legend|#D9D079|West Kutubuan}} {{legend|#FFE700|East Kutubuan}} {{legend|#DCD300|Chimbu–Wahgi}} {{legend|#00A159|Kainantu–Goroka}} {{legend|#BF767B|Madang}} {{legend|#7BB5B6|Finisterre–Huon}}

Southern PNG, E to W {{legend|#FFFF66|Binanderean}} {{legend|#FFF0B6|Southeast Papuan}} {{legend|#B00070|Angan}} {{legend|#AAD383|Eleman}} {{legend|#8D75B6|Teberan}} {{legend|#FFA100|Turama–Kikorian}} {{legend|#FF5E5F|Kiwai–Porome}} {{legend|#CCFF24|Inland Gulf}} {{legend|#D687FF|Gogodala–Suki}} {{legend|#FFD561|Tirio}} {{legend|#00FFFF|isolates*}}

* Mor, Tanah Merah, Dem, Uhunduni, Oksapmin, Wiru, Pawaia, Kamula, Moraori, Mombum ]]

Ross does not use specialized terms for different levels of classification as Donald Laycock and Stephen Wurm did. In the list given here, the uncontroversial families that are accepted by Foley and other Papuanists and that are the building blocks of Ross's TNG are printed in boldface. Language isolates are printed in italics.

Ross removed about 100 languages from Wurm's proposal, and only tentatively retained a few dozen more, but in one instance he added a language, the isolate Porome.

Ross did not have sufficient evidence to classify all Papuan groups. In addition, the classification is based on a single feature – shared pronouns, especially 1sg and 2sg – and thus is subject to false positives as well as to missing branches that have undergone significant sound changes, since he does not have the data to establish regular sound correspondences.

Although Ross based his classification on pronoun systems, many languages in New Guinea are too poorly documented for even this to work. Thus there are several isolates that were placed in TNG by Wurm but that cannot be addressed by Ross's classification. A few of them (Komyandaret, Samarokena, and maybe Kenati) have since been assigned to existing branches (or ex-branches) of TNG, whereas others (Massep, Momuna) continue to defy classification.
 * Unclassified Wurmian languages

 * Kenati (→ Kainantu?)
 * Komyandaret (→ Greater Awyu)
 * Massep isolate
 * Molof isolate
 * Momuna family (2)
 * Samarokena (→ Kwerba)
 * Tofamna isolate
 * Usku isolate

Ross removed 95 languages from TNG. These are small families with no pronouns in common with TNG languages, but that are typologically similar, perhaps due to long periods of contact with TNG languages.
 * Reclassified Wurmian languages

 * Border and Morwap (Elseng), as an independent Border family (15 languages)
 * Isirawa (Saberi), as a language isolate (though classified as Kwerba by Clouse, Donohue & Ma 2002)
 * Lakes Plain, as an independent Lakes Plain family (19)
 * Mairasi, as an independent Mairasi family (4)
 * Nimboran, as an independent Nimboran family (5)
 * Piawi, as an independent Piawi family (2)
 * Senagi, as an independent Senagi family (2)
 * Sentani (4 languages), within an East Bird's Head – Sentani family
 * Tor and Kwerba, joined as a Tor–Kwerba family (17)
 * Trans-Fly – Bulaka River is broken into five groups: three remaining (tentatively) in TNG (Kiwaian, Moraori, Tirio), plus the independent South-Central Papuan and Eastern Trans-Fly families (22 and 4 languages).

 * West Trans–New Guinea linkage ? [a suspected old dialect continuum]
 * West Bomberai – Timor–Alor–Pantar
 * Timor–Alor–Pantar families (22)
 * West Bomberai family (2)
 * Paniai Lakes (Wissel Lakes) family (5)
 * Dani family (13)
 * South Bird's Head (South Doberai) family (12)
 * Tanah Merah (Sumeri) isolate
 * Mor isolate
 * Dem isolate
 * Uhunduni (Damal, Amungme) isolate
 * Mek family (13)
 * ? Kaure–Kapori (4) [Inclusion in TNG tentative. No pronouns can be reconstructed from the available data.]
 * Kapori isolate
 * Kaure family (3)
 * ? Pauwasi family (4) [Inclusion in TNG tentative. No pronouns can be reconstructed from the available data. Since linked to Karkar, which is well attested and not TNG]
 * Kayagar family (3)
 * Kolopom family (3)
 * Moraori isolate
 * ? Kiwai–Porome (8) [TNG identity of pronouns suspect]
 * Kiwaian family (7)
 * Porome (Kibiri) isolate
 * Marind family (6)
 * Central and South New Guinea ? (49, reduced) [Part of the original TNG proposal. Not clear if these four families form a single branch of TNG. Voorhoeve argues independently for an Awyu–Ok relationship.]
 * Asmat–Kamoro family (11)
 * Awyu–Dumut family (8–16)
 * Mombum family (2)
 * Ok family (20)
 * Oksapmin isolate [now linked to the Ok family]
 * Gogodala–Suki family (4)
 * Tirio family (4)
 * Eleman family (7)
 * Inland Gulf family (6)
 * Turama–Kikorian family (4)
 * ? Teberan family [inclusion in TNG tentative] (2)
 * ? Pawaia isolate [has proto-TNG vocabulary, but inclusion questionable]
 * Angan family (12)
 * ? Fasu (West Kutubuan) family (1–3) [has proto-TNG vocabulary, but inclusion somewhat questionable]
 * ? East Kutubuan family (2) [has proto-TNG vocabulary, but inclusion somewhat questionable]
 * Duna–Pogaya family (2)
 * Awin–Pa family (2)
 * East Strickland family (6)
 * Bosavi family (8)
 * Kamula isolate
 * Engan family (9)
 * Wiru isolate (lexical similarities with Engan)
 * Chimbu–Wahgi family (17)
 * Kainantu–Goroka (22) [also known as East Highlands; first noticed by Capell 1948]
 * Goroka family (14)
 * Kainantu family (8)
 * Madang (103)
 * Southern Adelbert Range–Kowan
 * Kowan family (2)
 * Southern Adelbert Range
 * Josephstaal (7)
 * Osum (Utarmbung) isolate
 * Wadaginam isolate
 * Sikan family (2)
 * Pomoikan family (3)
 * Wanang (5)
 * Paynamar isolate
 * Atan family (2)
 * Emuan family (2)
 * Faita isolate
 * Rai Coast–Kalam
 * Rai Coast family (31)
 * Kalam family (4; perhaps part of Rai Coast)
 * Croisilles linkage
 * Dimir-Malas (2)
 * Kaukombar (4)
 * Kumil (5)
 * Tibor-Omosa (6)
 * Amaimon isolate
 * Numugen-Mabuso
 * Numugen family (6)
 * Mabuso family (29)
 * Finisterre–Huon (62) [part of the original TNG proposal. Has verbs that are suppletive per the person and number of the object.]
 * Finisterre family (41)
 * Huon family (21)
 * ? Goilalan family (6) [inclusion in TNG tentative]
 * Southeast Papuan (Bird's Tail) ? [these families have not been demonstrated to be related to each other, but have in common ya for 'you[plural]' instead of proto-TNG *gi]
 * Koiarian family (7)
 * Kwalean family (3)
 * Manubaran family (2)
 * Yareban family (5)
 * Mailuan family (6)
 * Dagan family (9)
 * Binanderean (16)
 * Guhu-Samane isolate
 * Binandere family (15) [a recent expansion from the north]

Pawley and Hammarström (2018)
Andrew Pawley and Harald Hammarström (2018) accept 35 subgroups as members of Trans-New Guinea.

 * Trans-New Guinea subgroups (strong evidence): 35 subgroups, 431 languages
 * Madang (107)
 * Finisterre-Huon (62)
 * Kainantu-Goroka (29)
 * Ok-Oksapmin (20)
 * Anim (17)
 * Chimbu-Wahgi (17)
 * Greater Awyu (17)
 * Enga-Kewa-Huli (14)
 * Angan (13)
 * Dani (13)
 * Greater Binanderean (13)
 * Asmat-Kamoro (11)
 * Dagan (9)
 * Mailuan (8)
 * Bosavi (7)
 * Koiarian (7)
 * Mek (7)

 * East Strickland (6)
 * Kiwaian (6)
 * Goilalan (5)
 * Paniai Lakes (5)
 * Yareban (5)
 * Gogodala-Suki (4)
 * Turama-Kikori (4)
 * Kayagaric (3)
 * Kolopom (3)
 * Kutubu (3)
 * Kwalean (3)
 * West Bomberai (3)
 * Awin-Pa (2)
 * Duna-Bogaya (2)
 * Manubaran (2)
 * Somahai (2)
 * Marori (isolate)
 * Wiru (isolate)

Groups and isolates considered by Pawley and Hammarström (2018) as having weaker or disputed claims to membership in Trans-New Guinea (some of which they suggest may ultimately turn out to be Trans-New Guinea, but further evidence is needed):
 * Bayono-Awbono (2)
 * Komolom (Mombum) (2)
 * Mairasi (3)
 * Pauwasi (5)
 * Pawaian (isolate)
 * Sentanic (4)
 * South Bird's Head (12)
 * Tanah Merah (isolate)
 * Teberan (2)
 * Timor-Alor-Pantar (20+)
 * Uhunduni (Damal) (isolate)

Groups and isolates sometimes classified as Trans-New Guinea, but rejected by Pawley and Hammarström (2018) as Trans-New Guinea:
 * Dem (isolate)
 * Eleman (5)
 * Kaki Ae (isolate)
 * Kamula (isolate)
 * Kaure-Narau (2)
 * Mor (isolate)
 * Porome (isolate)
 * Purari (isolate)

Glottolog 5.0 (2024)
Glottolog, of which Hammarström is one of the editors, accepts 10 groups as part of a Nuclear Trans–New Guinea family, based on Foley (2000), Pawley (2005) and Edgar Suter (1997).

 * Madang (108 languages)
 * Finisterre-Huon (61)
 * Asmat-Awyu-Ok (49)
 * Kainantu-Goroka (28)
 * Chimbu-Wahgi (17)
 * Enga-Kewa-Huli (14)
 * Dani (13)
 * Greater Binanderean (13)
 * Mek (8)
 * Paniai Lakes (5)

Usher (2024)

Timothy Usher and Edgar Suter, with the advice of Papuan researchers such as William Croft, Matthew Dryer, John Lynch, Andrew Pawley, and Malcolm Ross, have reconstructed low-level constituents of Trans–New Guinea to verify, through the establishment of regular sound changes, which purported members truly belong to it, and to determine their subclassification. In many cases Usher has created new names for the member families to reflect their geographic location. Much of his classification is accepted by Glottolog (though his names are not, as Glottolog invents its own names). As of 2024, his classification is as follows, including correspondences to the names in earlier classifications. He expects to expand the membership of the family as reconstruction proceeds.

These branches may cluster together (the southwestern branches, for example, may group together), but the details are as yet unclear.
 * Berau Gulf
 * Mor
 * North Berau Gulf (= South Bird's Head)
 * Yabin
 * South Bird's Head (= nuclear South Bird's Head plus Inanwatan)
 * West Bomberai (incl. Timor–Alor–Pantar)
 * Sumuri
 * West Papuan Highlands (= Irian Highlands)
 * Amung–Dem
 * Amung (Uhunduni)
 * Dem
 * Balim Valley (= Dani)
 * Paniai Lakes
 * Asmat – Muli Strait
 * Asmat – Kamrau Bay (= Asmat–Kamoro)
 * Muli Strait (= Mombum)
 * Cook River – Kolopom
 * Cook River (= Kayagar)
 * Kolopom (incl. Moraori)
 * Oksap (Oksapmin)
 * Central West New Guinea
 * Digul River – Ok
 * Digul River (= Greater Awyu, incl. Bayono-Awbono)
 * Kamula – Elevala River (= Awin–Pa plus Kamula)
 * Ok
 * Momuna–Mek
 * Mek
 * Momuna
 * Papuan Plateau (= Bosavi, incl. Dibiyaso)
 * Duna–Bogaia
 * Abom
 * Fly River (Anim)
 * Inland Gulf
 * Lake Murray (= Boazi)
 * Lower Fly River (= Tirio)
 * Marind–Yakhai (= Marind)
 * Eastern Highlands – Kratke Range
 * Eastern Highlands (= Kainantu–Goroka)
 * Kratke Range (= Angan)
 * Finisterre–Huon
 * Papuan Peninsula (Southeast Papuan)
 * Meneao Range (= Dagan)
 * Owen Stanley Range
 * Koiari – Managalas Plateau (= Koiarian)
 * Humene–Uare (= Kwalean)
 * Mount Brown (= Manubaran)
 * Cloudy Bay – Musa River
 * Bauwaki
 * Cloudy Bay (= Mailuan)
 * Musa River (= Yareban)

The families from the Ross and Glottolog classifications that are not included are Kaure, Pauwasi, Engan, Chimbu–Wahgi, Madang, Eleman, Kiwaian, Binanderean, Goilalan, and the several Papuan Gulf families. Usher only includes families that have a regular reflex of the 2sg pronoun, so there may be additional TNG families that have changed their pronouns.

Lexical semantics
A number of colexification patterns (called 'semantic conflations' by Donald Laycock), particularly in the nominal domain, are commonly found among Trans–New Guinea languages:
 * [man, husband]
 * [woman, wife]
 * [bird, bat]
 * [hair, fur, feather, leaf]
 * [tree, firewood, fire]
 * [water, river]
 * [bark, skin of animal, peel or skin of fruit]
 * [bark, skin, body]
 * [egg, fruit, seed; some other round objects, e.g. kidney, eye, heart]
 * [hand, foreleg of quadruped, wing]
 * [heart, seat of emotions]
 * [blood, red]
 * [garden, work], [to make gardens, to work]
 * [joint, elbow, knee]
 * [milk, sap, semen, white of egg, bone marrow]
 * [nose, face]
 * [teeth, internal mouth]
 * [leg, foot, hindleg]
 * [finger, toe]
 * [father, owner; mother, owner]

title: Trans–New Guinea languages


text:
Firaxis Games

Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meier's earlier venture. They were acquired by Take-Two Interactive in August 2005, and subsequently became part of the publisher's 2K label. Firaxis Games is best known for developing the Civilization and XCOM series, as well as many other games bearing Meier's name.

History
Firaxis Software was founded on May 1, 1996, by Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds and Jeff Briggs, three video game designers formerly employed by MicroProse, a video game venture founded by Meier and partner Bill Stealey in 1982. The name "Firaxis", a portmanteau of "fiery" and "axis", was derived from the name of a piece of music created by Briggs. Briggs explained that they decided to stay in the Baltimore area, rather than moving to Silicon Valley, because it was "just a great place to be". Unlike MicroProse, Firaxis Software aimed at being a "design house", leaving manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of their games to outside contractors. As such, the company talked to six potential video game publishers for their games, and finally signed an agreement with Electronic Arts, through which their games would be distributed under Electronic Arts' Origin Systems label. The studio's opening was announced on June 24, 1996. Firaxis Software was originally located in a 2,500-square-foot office on Gilroy Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland, temporarily sharing office space. To accommodate their growth, in February 1997, they announced that they were moving their corporate headquarters to a 7,200-square-foot office suite in Executive Plaza III, an office building at 11350 McCormick Road and part of the Hunt Valley Business Community. The deal, assisted by broker William W. Whitty Jr. of MacKenzie/O'Conor, Piper & Flynn Commercial Real Estate Services, was expected to be completed by March that year. The company had 13 employees at the time.

Firaxis Software announced their first title, Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, in June 1997. Interimly, on July 24, 1997, the company was legally renamed Firaxis Games. Electronic Arts announced to have acquired a minority interest in Firaxis Games, to undisclosed terms, in August 1997. By September 1997, Firaxis Games signed life insurances for its three founders. Gettysburg! was released in October 1997 to critical and commercial success, scoring near-perfect reviews from critics, and selling 200,000 copies by August 1999. Starting with Gettysburg!, Firaxis Games prefixed all games designed by Meier with "Sid Meier's", a trend the three founders carried over from MicroProse, as they believed that Meier's name added more recognizability to their games. For his works on many MicroProse games, as well as Gettysburg! and Firaxis Games' second title, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Meier became the second-ever person in the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences's Hall of Fame, following Shigeru Miyamoto. Co-founder Reynolds left Firaxis Games to pursue his personal interests in February 2000. To compensate his departure, the company started hiring various industry veterans by March 2000. For his executive engagement at Firaxis Games, co-founder and chief executive officer Briggs was named "CEO of the Year" by Smart CEO Magazine in October 2004. Briggs later left the company in November 2006, and was succeeded by Steve Martin. Also for his executive work at Firaxis Games, Martin was awarded the "Maryland International Business Leadership Award" by the World Trade Center Institute in March 2011.

In November 2004, Infogrames, at the time owner of the Civilization franchise and parent to the series' publisher, sold all intellectual property (IP) to an undisclosed buyer for US$22.3 million. The buyer was announced to be Take-Two Interactive on January 26, 2005. The publisher announced that the franchise would be managed by their 2K label, which was founded the day before, and that Firaxis Games would stay in charge of the series' development. In March 2005, NDL announced a partnership with Firaxis Games, wherein their Gamebryo engine would be used for the development of Civilization IV, which was to be released later that year. On November 7, 2005, Take-Two Interactive announced that they had acquired Firaxis Games. Through the deal, Firaxis Games became part of 2K, although its present management and development plans would stay intact. Meier and Briggs both expressed that the acquisition saw a great opportunity for Firaxis Games in terms of creative development and marketing capabilities, and were fortunate to have re-gained full control over the Civilization franchise. In April 2007, Soren Johnson, lead designer on Civilization IV, left the company to move to Maxis and work on Spore. Similarly, Civilization V lead designer Jon Shafer departed following the game's release, in December 2010.

In August 2014, Firaxis Games announced Firaxicon, a convention dedicated to Firaxis games. The event was held from September 27 to 28, 2014, at a hotel in Hunt Valley, and included meet and greets with the company's staff, a presentation titled "An Evening with Sid Meier", and early playtests of Civilization: Beyond Earth. A tour of Firaxis Games' offices was also held at the event. The event was renewed for a second edition in July 2015, and held on October 3, 2015, at the Baltimore Convention Center. Events were similar to that of the 2014 event, with XCOM 2 and Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide up for early testing.

By December 2015, Firaxis Games expanded their Sparks headquarters, which they moved to in 2009, to 40,000 sqft, and employed 40 new staff, totaling to 180 employees present at the company. In June 2016, at the Games for Change festival, Firaxis Games announced that they had partnered with GlassLab to develop CivilizationEDU, an educational derivative of Civilization V optimized for classrooms. On July 23, 2018, David Ismailer of 2K confirmed that Firaxis Games was working on a new IP.

On February 17, 2023, it was announced that Midnight Suns creative director Jake Solomon and longtime Firaxis boss Steve Martin were exiting the company. COO Heather Hazen was promoted to replace Martin. On May 30, 30 employees were laid off from Firaxis as part of cost-saving measures implemented by parent company Take-Two Interactive.

title: Firaxis Games


text:
Sharon Thesen

Sharon Thesen (born 1946 in Tisdale, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian poet who lives in Lake Country, British Columbia. She teaches at University of British Columbia Okanagan.

In 2003, Thesen was a judge for the Griffin Poetry Prize.

Selected works

 * Artemis Hates Romance, Toronto: Coach House Press, 1980
 * Radio New France Radio, Vancouver: Slug Press, 1981
 * Holding the Pose, Toronto: Coach House Press, 1983
 * Confabulations, Fernie, BC: Oolichan Books, 1984 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
 * The Beginning of the Long Dash, Toronto: Coach House Press, 1987 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
 * The Pangs of Sunday, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990
 * Aurora, Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1995
 * News and Smoke: Selected Poems, Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1999
 * A Pair of Scissors, Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2000 (winner of the Pat Lowther Award)
 * Weeping Willow, Vancouver: Nomados, 2005
 * The Good Bacteria, Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2006 (nominated for the 2006 Governor General's Award for poetry and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize)
 * Oyama Pink Shale, Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2011
 * The Receiver, Vancouver: New Star Books, 2017
 * The Wig-Maker w/Janet Gallant, Vancouver: New Star Books, 2021

title: Sharon Thesen


text:
Randy Barnes

Eric Randolph Barnes (born June 16, 1966) is an American former shot putter who held the outdoor world record for the event from 1990 to 2021. He won silver at the 1988 Olympics and gold at the 1996 Olympics. Only three throwers have been within 40 cm of his outdoor world record since it was set.

Biography
Barnes was born in Charleston, West Virginia, grew up in nearby St. Albans, and began putting the shot in high school. In 1985, he put an impressive 20.36 m with the prep shot of 5.4 kg. After graduating from St. Albans High School in 1985, he attended Texas A&M University where he broke school records (set by Randy Matson) with a put of 21.88 m with the 7.26 kg full size shot. While at A&M, Randy worked with hall of famer conditioning coach Istvan Javorek and throws coach Robert Parker.

He went to the 1988 Seoul Olympics where he put 22.39 m and earned a silver medal at only 22. He came second to Ulf Timmermann of East Germany, who put 22.47 m at the height of East German doping dominance. On January 20, 1989, he set a new indoor world record at the Sunkist Invitational in Los Angeles with a put of 22.66 m, which was better than his outdoor personal best at the time.

On May 20, 1990, he broke Ulf Timmermann's outdoor record with a put of. Six days later Timmermann almost matched his world record, throwing at the Bruce Jenner Invitational in San Jose. Barnes was banned from competing for 27 months after testing positive for the anabolic steroid methyltestosterone at a competition in Malmö, Sweden, on August 7 that same year. He sued to have the suspension overturned but lost. Due to the suspension, he was unable to compete in the 1992 Olympics.

At the 1996 Olympic Games, Barnes won the gold medal that eluded him 8 years earlier with a come-from-behind 21.62 m put on his final attempt. In 1998, he tested positive for androstenedione, an over-the-counter supplement (famously used by baseball player Mark McGwire) that is banned in track and field. Although Barnes claimed he did not know androsten was banned, he was suspended from competition for life.

Barnes later became a long driving competitor, competing to hit a golf ball as far as possible; he qualified for the 2005 World Long Drive Championship.

title: Randy Barnes