Welcome to PNG Language Resources
Papua New Guinea is linguistically the most complex nation of the world. Over 800 languages are spoken in this Pacific country. This site aims to show some of this linguistic diversity by making available the research results carried out by members of SIL.
SIL in PNG is a branch of SIL International, a volunteer nonprofit organization that has worked in PNG since 1956. In cooperation with the PNG Department of Education since 1956, research has been carried out in more than 389 languages, and at the present time about 316 SIL members are actively working on projects in 190 different languages.
This site provides information on many of these languages, including phonologies, grammars, dictionaries, literacy, and other materials, as well as language maps. In many cases the materials have been previously published, but unpublished archived and unedited studies and reports are also made available here. We believe it is appropriate for even incomplete and dated analyses to be made available, but in such cases the reader should note the tentative nature of the research.
We expect this site to expand as more materials become available electronically. We trust you will share our fascination with this linguistically rich country.
Latest Additions
- Causatives and other verbal prefixes in Molima 22-Sep-2009
- Comparison of Sepik Iwam and May River Iwam 22-Sep-2009
- Dialect survey of the Namia language 22-Sep-2009
- Doromu-Koki dialect survey report 22-Sep-2009
- Iduna - English, English - Iduna dictionary 22-Sep-2009
- Kamano grammar sketch 22-Sep-2009
- Logical relations in Mengen 22-Sep-2009
- Mato organised phonology data 22-Sep-2009
- Mato sociolinguistic and literacy study 22-Sep-2009
- Namia wordlists 22-Sep-2009
- Organised phonology data (Hote) 22-Sep-2009
- Rules for translation in the Namia language 22-Sep-2009