Watiwa language

Watiwa is a Rai Coast language of Papua New Guinea.

Watiwa
Dumpu
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMadang Province
Native speakers
510 (2003)[1]
none
Language codes
ISO 639-3wtf
Glottologdump1243

It is spoken by some 500 people living in six villages in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea, including Bebei (5.861935°S 145.711953°E / -5.861935; 145.711953 (Bembe)) and Dumpu (5.888972°S 145.736011°E / -5.888972; 145.736011 (Dumpu / Taborabo 1 and 2)) villages of Usino Rural LLG.[2][3]

It is more commonly known as Dumpu, but this is the name of one of the six villages, and is not accepted as a name for the language. Surviving mostly as a secret language with which to talk amongst themselves when outsiders are present,[4] the majority of the speakers use Tok Pisin in daily life. Due to its increasingly rare use, it is estimated that this language will be extinct in a few decades.[4]

References

  1. Watiwa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
  3. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  4. "PNG Language Resources endangered languages document" (PDF). SIL International. Retrieved 2009-05-13.


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