Bine and the whole Eastern Trans-Fly family were originally subsumed by Wurm (1975) as part of the Trans-Fly stock of the Trans-New Guinea phylum, but Ross (2005) doubts this genetic affiliation and recognizes the Eastern Trans-Fly languages as an independent language family. This position is largely maintained in the detailed survey of Southern New Guinea languages by Evans et al (forthcoming), though they draw attention to some tantalising morphological resemblances to the Yam (Morehead/Maro) languages, a family I am familiar with through my doctoral work on Komnzo. The Southern New Guinea area is characterized by a high level of multilingualism (Evans 2012). As for the Morehead District, it has been argued that this stems from a marriage-pattern of direct sister-exchange between different dialect groups (Williams 1936, Ayres 1984). Knauft (1993) includes the area where the Eastern Trans-Fly languages are spoken. Sister-exchange and the multilingual or multilectal communities to which it gives rise provide a rich field for the study of multilingualism and linguistic ideology.
