Watiwa is a Rai Coast language of Papua New Guinea.
| Watiwa | |
|---|---|
| Dumpu | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Madang Province |
Native speakers | 510 (2003)[1] |
| none | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wtf |
| Glottolog | dump1243 |
It is spoken by some 500 people living in six villages in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea, including Bebei (5°51′43″S 145°42′43″E / 5.861935°S 145.711953°E) and Dumpu (5°53′20″S 145°44′10″E / 5.888972°S 145.736011°E) 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
edit- ^ Watiwa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ 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.
- ^ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- ^ a b "PNG Language Resources endangered languages document" (PDF). SIL International. Retrieved 2009-05-13.