Four undocumented languages of Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia
- Laura Arnold
Abstract
Salawati, Batta, Biga, and As are four undocumented Austronesian languages belonging to the Raja Ampat-South Halmahera branch of South Halmahera-West New Guinea, spoken in West Papua province, Indonesia. Salawati, Batta, and Biga are spoken in the Raja Ampat archipelago, just off the western tip of the Bird’s Head peninsula of New Guinea, and As is spoken nearby on the New Guinea mainland. All four languages are to some degree endangered, as speakers shift to Papuan Malay, the local lingua franca: Biga is the most vital of the four languages, in that children are still acquiring it, whereas As is moribund, with only a handful of speakers remaining. Very little previous literature is available for any of the languages.
Keywords: Austronesian languages, Salawati, Batta, Biga, Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia
How to Cite:
Arnold, L., (2020) “Four undocumented languages of Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia”, Language Documentation and Description 17, 25-43. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd95
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