Language Map of West Papua (SIL)
Jayapura, 1/4 (Jubi) – 307 native languages of Papua has actually been identified. It means there are 32 identified languages that were not included in the existing data. This fact had prove the island as the region with the most native languages than other regions or tribes in Indonesia.
“There are 307 native languages that identified in the research conducted by Language Research Center of Papua and West Papua in 2013,” the Head of Language Research Center of Papua and West Papua, Supriyanto Widodo told to tabloidjubi.com on Tuesday (1/4) at his office.
He said the researcher team was determined 334 villages as the observation samples which represented some native languages in the entire of Papua. Later the team analyzed the collected data using the lexicostatistic and dialectometry methods. The research resulted 307 identified native languages used by the people of Papua.
Widodo regarded the founding as the tremendous wealth that should be maintained and protected. Therefore, he asked the Government Officials including the governors, regents and mayors in Papua to encourage programs to protect the native languages by globalization influences that might be affected its existences.
“The villages surrounding the urban areas were the most risk because the influence of cultural mixing would affect the first language. It would create a friction of language ” Supriyanto said.
Meanwhile, a young anthropologist from Cenderawasih University, Petrodes Keliduan appreciated the Language Research Center of Papua and Papua Barat who did the effort work to find some new languages in Papua that earlier have known about 275, because the result was very useful among the researchers. He hoped the local government of Papua would involve in a forum to discuss the best method to protect the 307 native languages in Papua,” he said. (Albert/Jubi/rom)
