The Dani or Baliem Valley languages are a family of clearly related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken by the Dani and related peoples in the Baliem Valley in the Highland Papua, Indonesia. Foley (2003)^{[citation needed]} considers their Trans–New Guinea language group status to be established. They may be most closely related to the languages of Paniai Lakes, but this is not yet clear. Capell (1962)^[1] posited that their closest relatives were the Kwerba languages, which Ross (2005) rejects.

Larson (1977)^[2] divided the family into three branches based on lexicostatistics, and Nggem was later added as a fourth. The Ngalik languages are very poorly attested.

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows.^[3] This is identical to the reconstruction of Bromley (1966-1967)^[4] apart from adding the rare consonants *pw, *mbw, and the possible additional vowel *ɐ.

And the diphthongs *ei, *ou, *ai, *au.

Ross (1995)^{[citation needed]} reconstructs the independent pronouns and possessive/object prefixes of Central Dani as:

The following basic vocabulary words are from Bromley (1967)^[4] and Voorhoeve (1975),^[5] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:^[6]

Dani reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:^[8]

Grand Valley Dani language:

• ap 'man' < *ambi
• meli 'tongue' < *me(l,n)e
• n-esi 'hair' < *iti[C] (n- is 1sg possessor)
• me(m) 'come' < *me-
• ket 'new' < *kVndak

Western Dani language:

• ap 'man' < *ambi
• (n)iti < *iti[C]
• meli 'tongue' < *me(l,n)e
• get 'new' < *kVndak
• okut 'leg' < *k(a,o)ndok[V]
• kat(lo) 'skin' < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu
• idu 'tree' < *inda

Ngalik language:

• idu(k)etu 'tree' < *inda
• (nak) amu 'breast' < *amu
• tokon 'full' < *tVkV[ti]
• kopu 'smoke' < *kambu