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Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The western half of New Guinea forms the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. It is the world's third largest island country with 462,840 km2 (178,700 sq mi).
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from New Guinea island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Tonga.
Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken in New Guinea and neighboring islands, perhaps the third-largest language family in the world by number of languages. The core of the family is considered to be established, but its boundaries and overall membership are uncertain. The languages are spoken by around 3 million people. There have been three main proposals as to its internal classification.
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. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Austronesian-speaking Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.
The indigenous peoples of New Guinea, commonly called Papuans, are Melanesians. There is genetic evidence for two major historical lineages in New Guinea and neighboring islands:
- a first wave from the Malay archipelago perhaps 50,000 years ago when New Guinea and Australia were a single landmass called Sahul,
- and much later a wave of Austronesian people from the north who introduced Austronesian languages and pigs about 3,500 years ago, and who left a small but significant genetic trace in many coastal Papuan peoples.
Melanesians are the predominant and indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia, in a wide area from Maluku Islands and New Guinea to as far east as the islands of Vanuatu and Fiji. Most speak either one of the many languages of the Austronesian language family, especially ones in the Oceanic branch, or from one of the many unrelated families of Papuan languages. Other languages are the several creoles of the region, such as Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, Solomon Islands Pijin, Bislama, and Papuan Malay.
Gogodala is the name of an ethnic/language group from the Middle Fly District of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. They speak the Gogodala language, which belongs to the Trans-New Guinea language family. It is one of about a thousand distinct ethnic groups in the country, each which has its own language and culture.
Oksapmin is a Trans–New Guinea language spoken in Oksapmin Rural LLG, Telefomin District, Sandaun, Papua New Guinea. The two principal dialects are distinct enough to cause some problems with mutually intelligibility.
Huli is a Tari language spoken by the Huli people of the Hela Province of Papua New Guinea. It features a pentadecimal (base-15) numeral system: ngui means 15, ngui ki means 15×2 = 30, and ngui ngui means 15×15 = 225.
Today, there are 851 languages spoken in Papua New Guinea. In 2006, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare stated that "Papua New Guinea has 832 living languages ," making it the most linguistically diverse place on Earth. Languages with statutory recognition are Tok Pisin, English, Hiri Motu, and Papua New Guinean Sign Language. Tok Pisin, an English-based creole, is the most widely spoken, serving as the country's lingua franca. Papua New Guinean Sign Language became the fourth officially recognised language in May 2015, and is used by the deaf population throughout the country.
The tenkile, also known as Scott's tree-kangaroo, is a species of tree-kangaroo in the family Macropodidae. It is endemic to a very small area of the Torricelli Mountains of Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests. It is threatened by habitat loss and by hunting. The Tenkile is listed as endangered due to hunting and logging activities in Papua New Guinea. The Tenkile is hunted for its meat, Tenkile is the main protein source for the residents of Papua New Guinea. The population of Papua New Guinea has increased in recent years due to improvements in healthcare; therefore increasing need in Tenkile meat which means that more Tenkiles are being hunted. Additionally, Tenkiles are poached for their fur and are captured and sold as a part of the illegal pet trade. Domesticated dogs also hunt Tenkiles. Deforestation in Papua New Guinea affects all Tree-Kangaroos, however industrial logging that occurs in the Torricelli Mountain Range decreases the already small habitat of the Tenkile. The Torricelli Mountain Range faces additional deforestation due to the timber industry, and the production of coffee, rice and wheat.
The lesser forest wallaby or small dorcopsis is a species of marsupial in the family Macropodidae. It is found in the mountainous interior of West Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests. It is less common than it used to be and the IUCN has assessed it as being "near threatened".
The Greater Awyu or Digul River languages, known in earlier classifications with more limited scope as Awyu–Dumut (Awyu–Ndumut), are a family of perhaps a dozen Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in eastern West Papua in the region of the Digul River. Six of the languages are sufficiently attested for a basic description; it is not clear how many of the additional names may be separate languages.
The Central and South New Guinea languages (CSNG) are a proposed family of Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG). They were part of Voorhoeve & McElhanon's original TNG proposal, but have been reduced in scope by half in the classification of Malcolm Ross. According to Ross, it is not clear if the pronoun similarities between the four remaining branches of Central and South New Guinea are retentions for proto-TNG forms or shared innovations defining a single branch of TNG. Voorhoeve argues independently for an Awyu–Ok relationship, and Foley echoes that Asmat may be closest to Awyu and Ok of the TNG languages. Regardless, the four individual branches of reduced Central and South New Guinea are themselves clearly valid families.
The Ok languages are a family of a score of related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in a contiguous area of eastern Irian Jaya and western Papua New Guinea. The most numerous language is Ngalum, with some 20,000 speakers; the best known is probably Telefol.
New Guinea is a large island separated by the shallow Torres Strait from the rest of the Australian continent. It is the world's second-largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi), and the largest island wholly or partly within the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania.
Mian may refer to:
Telefol is a language spoken by the Telefol people in Papua New Guinea, notable for possessing a base-27 numeral system.
The Urapmin people are an ethnic group numbering about 375 people in the Telefomin District of the West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. One of the Min peoples who inhabit this area, the Urapmin share the common Min practices of hunter-gatherer subsistence, taro cultivation, and formerly, an elaborate secret cult available only to initiated men.
Mian is an Ok language spoken in the Telefomin district of the Sandaun province in Papua New Guinea by the Mian people. It has some 3,500 speakers spread across two dialects: West Mian, with approximately 1,000 speakers in around Yapsiei, and East Mian, with approximately 2,500 speakers in and around Timeilmin, Temsakmin, Sokamin, Gubil, Fiak and Hotmin. Phonologically, Mian is very similar to other Papuan languages in the size of its phoneme inventory, but it nevertheless has some peculiarities, such as its contrast between a plain [a] and a pharyngealized [aˤ]. It is also a tonal language.