| Languages of Papua New Guinea | |
|---|---|
 | |
| National | Tok Pisin(used nationwide),English,Hiri Motu(Central andGulf provinces.),Papua New Guinean Sign Language |
| Indigenous | Papuan languages,Austronesian languages |
| Immigrant | Chinese |
| Foreign | French,[1][2]Indonesian,[2]Japanese,[3]Russian[4] |
Papua New Guinea, asovereign state inOceania, is the mostlinguistically diverse country in the world.[5]Ethnologue, among other sources, state that there are 840living languages spoken in the country, although estimates vary due to the distinction between alanguage and adialect.[6][7][8] In 2006, Papua New Guinea Prime MinisterSir Michael Somare stated that "Papua New Guinea has 832 living languages (languages, not dialects)."[9][10] 25 of those languages are officially recognized, with the country'slingua franca (andvernacular for some) beingTok Pisin, anEnglish-basedcreole (althoughstandard English is typically used in government, education, and formal writing).[8][11]
Most of these are classified as indigenousPapuan languages, which form a diversesprachbund across the island ofNew Guinea. There are also manyAustronesian languages spoken in Papua New Guinea, most of which are classified asWestern Oceanic languages, as well as someAdmiralty Islands languages andPolynesian Ellicean–Outlier languages in a few outer islands. Since the late 19th century,West Germanic languages — namely English and German — have also been spoken and adapted intocreoles such asTok Pisin,Torres Strait Creole andUnserdeutsch.
Languages with statutory recognition areTok Pisin,English,Hiri Motu, andPapua New Guinean Sign Language.[12][13]Papua New Guinean Sign Language became the fourth officially recognised language in May 2015, and is used by thedeaf population throughout the country.
English is a language of Papua New Guinea and is used by the government, courts, and the education system. Although no official data in the last decade is easily available, the 2011 census states that 39.9% of the population was literate in English.[14]
From 1884 to 1914, the northern half of the present-day country was a German colony known asGerman New Guinea, in which German was the official language. Tok Pisin derives some vocabulary from German as a result of this influence. Today however, German is not a generally spoken language inPapua New Guinea.
Unserdeutsch, orRabaul Creole German, is aGerman-basedcreole language spoken mainly inEast New Britain Province. The lexicon is derived from German, while the substrate language is Tok Pisin.[15]
Tok Pisin is anEnglish-basedcreole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an official language of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in the country. In parts ofWestern,Gulf,Central,Oro andMilne Bay provinces, however, the use of Tok Pisin has a shorter history, and is less universal especially among older people.[citation needed] In the 2011 census, 68.4% of the population were literate in Tok Pisin.[14]
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a simplified version of theMotu language of theAustronesian language family. In the 2011 census, 4.7% of the population were literate in Hiri Motu.[14]
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Outside Papua New Guinea, Papuan languages that are also spoken include the languages ofIndonesia,East Timor, andSolomon Islands.
Below is a full list ofPapuan language families spoken in Papua New Guinea, following Palmer, et al. (2018):[16]
People speaking languages belonging to theAustronesian family arrived in New Guinea approximately 3,500 years ago.[citation needed]
All the Austronesian languages spoken in Papua New Guinea belong to itsOceanic subgroup.[17] More precisely, these languages belong to four branches of Oceanic:
PNGSL is an official language of Papua New Guinea; it is based onAuslan and varioushome sign forms.
In 2011, 67.6% of the population of Papua New Guinea over 10 years of age wereliterate.[14]
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