Facts about Anor language

Have you ever wondered why the languages that people speak in the past are extinct today? What if our languages also become extinct in the future? If you are a linguist then you already have an idea how fast we are losing languages. And if you don’t know what is going on and what endangered languages are, don’t worry we will discuss them in this article. Along with that, we will discuss the endangered languages of Papua New Guinea including the Anor language.

The main endangered language that we will discuss today is the Anor language. So without any further delay, let’s get started!

Anor -the language of Papua New Guinea

Anor language is one of the languages that people speak in Papua New Guinea. It belongs to the Ramu language. Another name of the Anor language is Atemble languages. The people who speak the Anor language live in Madang, the Province of Papua New Guinea. In 2000 it has 980 native speakers and only one group of people who speak it as the primary language. There is no historical record of the Anor language; it is on the top list of endangered languages of Papua New Guinea.

Let’s have a look at Papua New Guinea and its languages.

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is the country of Oceania. It is in the Southwestern Pacific region that surrounds the eastern half of New Guinea and its offshore islands. The country has well-known beaches and coral reefs. It is the country of the highest linguistic, cultural and biological diversity. Different tribal villages of Papua New Guinea have different language pairs. These old languages are, “so-called Papuan Languages.

Languages of Papua New Guinea

The linguistic diversity of Papua New Guinea is so intense that it has 7.6m people with almost 850 different languages.

Official Languages

The official languages of Papua New Guinea reflect its colonial history. Following languages comes under the official languages of the country.

• English, the main language of government and commerce.
• Tok Pisin(Pidgin Language; also called Melanesia Pidgin or Neo-Melanesian), the most spoken language in daily life.
• Creole, the combination of different indigenous languages, some German and some English.
• Hiri Motu, the trading language of people.

Other Indigenous languages

There are more than 800 indigenous languages in the country. These languages belong to two different radical language groups.

Austronesian

The local languages of the country are classified as Melanesian, which belongs to Austronesian. There are almost 200 Austronesian-related languages in the country. The speakers of Austronesia generally belong to the Coastal region and offshore island that includes Trobriand and Buka.

Non-Austronesian or Papuan languages

The speaker of Non-Austronesian or Papuan languages lives mainly in the interior of the country. There are approximately 500 Non-Austronesian languages with small speech communities, while the large belongs to Engan, Melpa, and Kuman speakers in the Highlands with 100,000 speakers.

Now let’s talk about the extinct or endangered languages of Papua New Guinea.

Endangered languages of PNG other than Anor Language

Due to immense linguistic diversity, many languages of Papua New Guinea are considered endangered. Following are some of the exceptionally endangered languages in PNG. The list is expected to give an example and isn’t proposed to be comprehensive. Every language enlisted here is connected to a short assessment of language validity, along with a list of known language assets.

Abaga language

Abaga language belongs to the Trans-New Guinea language of Papua New Guinea. It is related to Kamono and Yagaria language. It is also known as the Kamano-Yagaria language. Abaga is very close to extinction. In 1994, it has 5 native speakers in the region of Eastern Highland Province.

Ainbai language 

Ainbai language is the language of Sandaun Province in PNG. It is a Papuan language. It had 100 native speakers in 2003. The people of Ainbai village, Bewani-Wutung Onei Rural also speak the Ainbai language.

Bosilewa language

Bosilewa is also known as Bole, Bolawa, Bolanchi, Bolewa languages. It is the language of West Chadic language. People in Nigeria speak the Bosilewa language. It has 100,00 native speakers. The dialects of the Bosilewa language include Bara and Fika.

Bepour language 

Bepour language is the language of Papuan in PNG. People in the region of Madang Province speak Bepour. It is also very close to extinction. In 2000 it has only 50 native speakers.

Mumeng language 

Mumeng belongs to the Austronesian family language of Papua New Guinea. People in Morobe Province speak the mumeng language. It has a different number of native speakers in different languages.

Doga language

Doga language belongs to the Austronesian language of the family in PNG. It has 200 native speakers. People in Cape Vogel and Milne Bay Province speak the Doga language.

Kaiep language

Kaiep language belongs to the Kairiru language family of Turubu Rural LLG, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. People in Kep, Taul, and Samap village speak Kaiep language. It has nearly 200 native speakers.

Kaki Ae language

The other name of the Kaki Ae language is the Tate language. It has almost 500 speakers with half of the ethnic population in Papua New Guinea. Also there was a time when it was known as a foreign designation Raeta Tati.

Why does Papua New Guinea have so many Languages?

Well, Papua New Guinea is the highest diversified language country in the world. The three main reasons why PNG has so many languages are:

Time

It is the first and important factor that causes extreme linguistic diversity. Papuan is inhabited for some 40,000 and it’s enough time for natural language shift and diversification.

Physical Geography

It is the second major cause of linguistic diversity in PNG. People of PNG living in mountains, islands, rugged coastline, swampland, and tropical forest, have their own different languages. This is because of the least social interaction between them.

Social Structure

The correlation between social structures and cultural diversity is also one of the biggest causes of linguistic diversity.

So it is not surprising at all, to have such linguistic diversity in PNG.

Why it is important to save the dying and disappearing languages?

Various factors make a language endangered and then extinct. One of the most important factors is the generation gap. Children lose interest to learn their native languages. When children don’t learn those languages, it dies automatically with their elders. Another important factor is that today the world is focusing on dominant language only. So everyone wants to learn these dominant languages to become an independent individual and stand out, in the world. Some lingos disappear because of some unreached people that not even a single person other then them knows the language. According to UNESCO, around 230 languages become extinct from 1950 to 2010. Moreover, the world lost a language every 14 days.

Well, Language is an important and personal aspect of society and when a language dies, the ability and knowledge to understand culture also die with it. So it is very important to save dying and disappearing languages.

Conclusion

In the end, I want to quote the words of Bogre Udell,

When humanity loses a language, we also lose the potential for greater diversity in art, music, literature, and oral traditions.

So, we need to address this issue and take some serious actions, in order to save our languages.