Languages on New Guinea vanish without a whisper (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

Languages on New Guinea vanish without a whisper

Updated: 2011-07-22 07:41
By Jerome Rivet (China Daily)

JAYAPURA, Indonesia - Who will speak Iniai in 2050? Or Faiwol?
Moskona? Wahgi? Probably nobody, as the languages of New Guinea - the
world's greatest linguistic reservoir - are disappearing in a tide of
indifference.

Yoseph Wally, an anthropologist at Cendrawasih University in Jayapura,
keeps his ears open when he visits villages to hear what language the
locals are speaking.

"It's Indonesian more and more. Only the oldest people still speak in
the local dialect," he said.

In some villages he visits, not a single person can understand a word
of the traditional language.

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