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| Languages of Papua New Guinea | |
|---|---|
| Name | Papua New Guinea |
| Native name | Papua Niugini |
| Population | ~9 million |
| Area km2 | 462,840 |
| Capital | Port Moresby |
Languages of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea is one of the most linguistically diverse states, where communities across Port Moresby, Lae, Mount Hagen, Madang, and Goroka speak hundreds of distinct tongues. The country's linguistic landscape involves interactions among speakers of English language, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, and a vast array of indigenous languages studied by scholars from institutions such as the Australian National University, University of Papua New Guinea, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and SIL International.
Over 800 languages are reported within the borders of Papua New Guinea, more than in any other sovereign state, a fact noted by researchers at the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the Endangered Languages Project. Major population centres including Kokopo, Rabaul, Wewak, Kavieng, and Alotau host multilingual populations that use Tok Pisin and English language alongside local tongues. Census efforts by the National Statistical Office (Papua New Guinea) and surveys by UNESCO and the World Bank document variable speaker numbers, with many languages having fewer than a few thousand speakers.
Papua New Guinea's indigenous tongues fall mainly into Austronesian languages and numerous Papuan languages groups such as Trans–New Guinea languages, Sepik languages, Torricelli languages, Finisterre–Huon languages, Torres Strait languages influences, and isolated families like Koiarian languages and Goilalan languages. Classification efforts by linguists including Stephen Wurm, Malcolm Ross, Bill Foley, New Guinea World project, and William A. Foley attempt to resolve relationships among Madang languages, Sepik–Ramu languages, and East Papuan languages, while molecular phylogenetics comparisons reference work by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Australian National University.
Lingua francas such as Tok Pisin and Hiri Motu coexist with official English language in administration, education, and commerce in cities like Port Moresby, Lae, and Kokopo. Prominent indigenous languages with large speaker populations include Enga language in the Highlands, Melpa language around Mount Hagen, Kuman language near Chimbu Province, Motu language in the Central Province, Kre language variants, Tolai language on New Britain, and Siane language in the Highlands. International organizations including UNICEF and World Health Organization often produce materials in Tok Pisin and regional languages for outreach in places such as Manus Island and Bougainville.
Regional distributions link language zones to provinces like Western Highlands Province, Eastern Highlands Province, Morobe Province, Madang Province, East Sepik Province, Western Province, Central Province, Oro Province, New Ireland Province, and West New Britain. Multilingual repertoires are common in marketplaces in Goroka Show gatherings and at cultural events like the Wantok system social networks and the Kundu drum ceremonies. Contact phenomena produce loanwords between Austronesian languages such as Anêm language and Papuan languages such as Yawelmani-related vocabularies recorded by teams from SIL International and the University of Sydney.
Language policy debates involve the National Department of Education (Papua New Guinea), the University of Papua New Guinea, and international donors including the World Bank and UNESCO. Mother-tongue education programs have been piloted using local languages in primary schooling with curricular support from the Education Act (Papua New Guinea) frameworks and NGOs like Save the Children and Plan International. Media outlets broadcasting in local languages include the National Broadcasting Corporation (Papua New Guinea), community radio stations in Goroka, Lae, and Madang, and print initiatives supported by the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the British Council.
Many small languages face endangerment in the face of urbanization to Port Moresby and intermarriage, with documentation efforts driven by projects at the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and academic teams from University of Melbourne, University of Auckland, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge. Revitalization efforts draw on community elders, church groups such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea, and cultural institutions like the National Museum and Art Gallery (Papua New Guinea), producing orthographies and bilingual materials similar to programs run by First Languages Australia and networks like the Vanuatu Cultural Centre.
Extensive fieldwork has been conducted by scholars including Stephen Wurm, Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley, Bill Foley, Lidwina K. Teutschenthaler and institutions such as Australian National University, University of Papua New Guinea, SIL International, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Major corpora and descriptive grammars exist for languages like Enga language, Melpa language, Kuot language, Abau language, Tami language, Amto–Musan languages and Kiwai languages, while digital archives are hosted by repositories affiliated with the Endangered Languages Archive and the Open Language Archives Community. Comparative studies link Papua New Guinea data to broader typological questions addressed by projects at the Linguistic Society of America, the Royal Society, and the American Philosophical Society.
Category:Languages by country