[8] Some of the groups could turn out to be related to each other, but Wichmann (2013) lists them as separate groups pending further research. Austronesian speakers generally inhabit the coastal regions and offshore islands, including the Trobriands and Buka. There are 840 living languages in Papua New Guinea, although 37 of those are close to extinction This was the scheme used by Ethnologue prior to Ross's classification (below). Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Introduction. (Ross argues that open-class pronoun systems, where borrowings are common, are found in hierarchical cultures such as those of Southeast Asia and Japan, where pronouns indicate details of relationship and social status rather than simply being grammatical pro-forms as they are in the more egalitarian New Guinea societies.). 2013. One fifth of all the world's languages are to be Papua New Guinea is by far the largest and the most populated country in the Pacific. In the archipelagoes of the north and northeast, yams, taro, and bananas are grown as staple foods. It has been suggested that these may have originally been non-Austronesian languages that have borrowed nearly all of their vocabulary from neighboring Austronesian languages, but no connection with the Papuan languages of Timor has been found. When it became independent in 1949, the government of Papua New Guinea chose three languages for official use – English, Tok Pisin (creole) and Hiri Motu (simplified form of the Austronesian language, Motu). However, more recently Foley has accepted the broad outline if not the details of Wurm's classification, as he and Ross have substantiated a large portion of Wurm's Trans–New Guinea phylum. [22], Tonal Papuan languages include the Sko, Lepki, Kaure, Kembra, Lakes Plain, and Keuw languages. He classed the vast majority as ‘cyclic’. Malcolm Ross re-evaluated Wurm's proposal on purely lexical grounds. Statistical analyses designed to pick up signals too faint to be detected by the comparative method, though of disputed validity, suggest five major Papuan stocks (roughly Trans–New Guinea, West, North, East, and South Papuan languages);[3] long-range comparison has also suggested connections between selected languages, but again the methodology is not orthodox in historical linguistics. With a share of around 78%, it is most widespread in Papua New Guinea. The official language is English, which is widely used in business and government circles. Papuan languages speaking countries Papuan languages is no official language in any country, but is spoken as mother tongue in 2 countries by a minor part of the population. Most Papuan languages are spoken by hundreds to thousands of people; the most populous are found in the New Guinea highlands, where a few exceed a hundred thousand. The island of Karkar and the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain are centres of particularly dense population. Church near Lorengau, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. However, the nation is considered as the most linguistically diverse country in the … In 2006, the Prime Minister of the country declared that there are 832 living languages in Papua New Guinea. With an average of only 7,000 speakers per language, Papua New Guinea has a greater density of languages than any other nation on earth except Vanuatu. The Highlands valleys are densely settled, whether in villages or scattered hamlets. English is one of the official languages spoken in the country. (2018) propose 43 independent families and 37 language isolates in the Papuasphere, comprising a total of 862 languages. Papua New Guinea is known for its biodiversity, cultures, and languages. In addition to the official languages, there are more than 800 distinct indigenous languages belonging to two radically different language groups—Austronesian, to which the local languages classified as Melanesian belong, and non-Austronesian, or Papuan. The capital of Papua New Guinea is Port Moresby. The major exception has been the cultivation of oil palm in West New Britain (on previously little-used volcanic soils) and on the eastern mainland, boosted by foreign investment. - em hamas? There are languages that are spoken by thousands of people while others only have dozens of speakers. The island of New Guinea is one of the most bio-culturally diverse regions of the globe [].Contained within New Guinea’s 768,000 km 2 are more than 900 languages divided into at least 23 different language families [2, 3].In linguistic terms, New Guinea is therefore at least six times more diverse than Europe in classical times []. Ross also found that the Lower Mamberamo languages (or at least the Warembori language—he had insufficient data on Pauwi) are Austronesian languages that have been heavily transformed by contact with Papuan languages, much as the Takia language has. English is mainly spoken by migrants and expatriates working in the country. Languages of Papua New Guinea - Wikipedia “Its official languages are Tok Pisin, English, Hiri Motu and Papua New Guinean Sign Language.” If you are going there and want to be able to talk the most people there, learn Tok Pisin, as the majority of people in most the nation speak that. • TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea (by Simon Greenhill) [22], Cover term for several language families spoken in New Guinea and neighboring areas, Papuan families proposed by Wurm (1975) (with approximate numbers of languages), Papuan families other than TNG accepted by Foley (2003), Papuan families proposed by Wichmann (2013), Papuan families proposed by Palmer (2018). Stephen Wurm stated that the lexical similarities between Great Andamanese and the West Papuan and Timor–Alor families "are quite striking and amount to virtual formal identity [...] in a number of instances". [12] A total of 80 independent groups are recognized. Many of these languages are spoken only by a very small number of … Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership. Other linguists, including William A. Foley, have suggested that many of Wurm's phyla are based on areal features and structural similarities, and accept only the lowest levels of his classification, most of which he inherited from prior taxonomies. Almost all commercial crops are exported, although the domestic vegetable market is growing rapidly. 9 families have been broken up into separate groups in Wichmann's (2013) classification, which are: An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller, Velupillai, Wichmann et al. Factbook > Countries > Papua New Guinea > Demographics Languages: Tok Pisin (official), English (official), Hiri Motu (official), some 839 indigenous languages spoken (about 12% of the world's total); many languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers Ethnologue (2009) largely follows Ross. As of 2020, the following families are identified:[19]. After independence, Papua New Guinea adopted three official languages. Despite the apparent inroads made by introduced religions, much of the population also maintains traditional religious beliefs, and rituals of magic, spells, and sorcery are still widely practiced. The majority of Papua New Guinea’s people are at least nominally Christian. The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. Tok Pisin, a creole, is the second; Hiri Motu, a simplified version of … Papua New Guinea (PNG) has about 800 + languages that i think make up 25% of the worlds languages. Papua New Guinea has more languages than any other country, with over 820 indigenous languages, representing 12% of the world's total, but most have fewer than 1,000 speakers. Amid such a multiplicity of tongues, Tok Pisin serves as an effective lingua franca. It is based on very preliminary work, much of it typological, and Wurm himself has stated that he doesn't expect it to hold up well to scrutiny. The Lingua Franca in this country is Pidgin( tok-Pisin) which contains many words from different languages, especially English and German, the languages of the colonial powers that reigned in this part of the world. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Port Moresby and Lae, on the Huon Gulf, are the largest cities. However, he considered this not evidence of a connection between (Great) Andamanese and Trans–New Guinea, but of a substratum from an earlier migration to New Guinea from the west. 37 Full PDFs related to this paper. More than two-fifths of the population is Protestant; Lutherans make up the largest portion of those, and there are some Anglicans and a growing number of Pentecostals. According to Ross (see below), the main problem with Wurm's classification is that he did not take contact-induced change into account. Papua New Guinea’s rate of population growth tends to be high and life expectancy somewhat low, relative to other countries in the region. What is the world’s largest archipelago? [4], The Great Andamanese languages may be related to some western Papuan languages, but are not themselves covered by the term Papuan.[2]. [7] Besides Trans–New Guinea and families possibly belonging in TNG (see), he accepted the proposals for. Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern part of the world's second largest island and is prey to volcanic activity, earthquakes and tidal waves. Throughout much of the Highlands, carefully tended gardens dominate the landscape; some are arrayed in checkerboard patterns defined by drainage ditches, and others are circular mounds built on compost to warm and enrich the soil. However, there are also many Austronesian languages that are grammatically similar to Trans–New Guinea languages due to the influence of contact and bilingualism. One Papuan language, Meriam, is spoken within the national borders of Australia, in the eastern Torres Strait. Seventh-day Adventism is increasing in popularity, and there are also small numbers of Bahāʾīs and Muslims. Language-in-education policies in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are possibly the most interesting and best model for the world to follow. [2] Since perhaps only a quarter of Papuan languages have been studied in detail, linguists' understanding of the relationships between them will continue to be revised. However, Ross argues that Papuan languages have closed-class pronoun systems, which are resistant to borrowing, and in any case that the massive number of languages with similar pronouns in a family like Trans–New Guinea preclude borrowing as an explanation. 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