It is fascinating to learn about new things from new places, such as the West Papua language of one of the exotic areas in Indonesia. Surprisingly, many Indonesians may not know about the language of this area. Of course, Indonesian is the first language of the country. Approximately 94% of Indonesians spoke it daily, regardless of their locations. Nevertheless, there are many more languages within this archipelago to explore. When it comes to language, it is never that simple in almost any place.
The West Papua Province of Indonesia
The so-called West Papua language is there in the province of West Papua. It is not the same place as the province of Papua. As its name implies, it groups the western sections of mainland Papua with several nearby islands. It has only one city with twelve regencies under a special autonomous status from the Indonesian government. As a different area from mainland Papua, it is reasonable for the people of this province to speak some other languages.
Aside from the language matter, the province has its popularity for the exotic traveling spots. The famous Raja Ampat Islands complex is the most popular destination in the area. Both local and foreign tourists love to visit the islands and enjoy natural beauties in many forms. Of course, there is a chance to learn West Papua language while traveling there. Knowing all about the language of the locals is always fascinating to do when traveling across the world.
The Language of the Mainland Papua
It is a considerably complicated matter to talk about the so-called Papua language. The mainland itself is known as New Guinea. Of course, the western half is the Papua province of Indonesia, and the other half is the country of Papua New Guinea. Nevertheless, Papuan is the term to call many languages in the area. Yet, it is not exactly one form of it. Just like English as a general term, there are many variants of English in some areas of the world.
The island of New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse in the world. It is home to over 700 variants of the Papuan language. Moreover, there are 300 more languages of the Austronesian family in the area. So, it can be somewhat overwhelming to look at the Papua language family maps. It is only reasonable to be like that because the island itself is the second-largest island worldwide. With a lot of people in it, the language varies accordingly from one place to another.
The Language of West Papua
The latest simplification of this matter leads to twenty-three families of language on the island. The so-called West Papua language is the second largest family on that particular list. The top of the list is Trans-New Guinea, with over 400 variants of a language in it. There are about three million people who speak this particular language family. The Timor-Alor-Pantar is one of the members. The coverage of this variant reaches the Nusa Tenggara archipelago of Indonesia.
About the West Papua language map, it is the so-called Extended West Papuan on the list of 23 language families of New Guinea Island. In total, there are about 315,000 speakers of this language group. The majority of them occupy a large area of the so-called Bird’s Head of the island. It is an easy thing to understand when looking at the shape of the island on any map. The western section of New Guinea Island looks like the head of a bird. Check the map now to see it.
So, there is no simple answer to the question of what language do West Papua people speak. Within the total of 315,000 speakers of Extended West Papuan, there are three groups. Yava, Sentani, and West Papuan languages are in the group. The so-called Yava languages group is the one with the smallest number of speakers. It has only 10,000 speakers who occupy the area of Yava island. It sits on the northern coast of New Guinea Island.
Furthermore, the Sentani is the language of the area known as the East Bird’s Head. Of course, it is the eastern section of the Bird’s Head portion of the island. The languages group of Sentani has a total of seven variants with over 37,000 speakers. So, it is among the languages of the province. Anyone who wants to learn West Papua language indigenous variant needs to know this part as well. Without this language group, it is not a complete West Papua language family.
The largest group of languages on the Bird’s Head area of the island is the West Papuan. So far, it has 23 languages that its people speak every day. There are more than 270,000 speakers of West Papuan that spread across the islands in the area. It reaches the southern part of the Maluku islands and the northern section of Halmahera. Those can be the ultimate answer to the question of what language do they speak in West Papua.
Learning the Indigenous Language of the Island
It is fascinating that some people provide materials and resources for learning West Papua language these days. The advancement of internet technology is one of the supporting factors on this matter. Today, it is easy to find the resources on West Papuan over the internet. More importantly, numerous official websites discuss West Papua itself. Of course, it is a thing that some of the locals want to do to spread their unique culture in the form of language.
In terms of the best West Papua language learning option, it is not as simple as learning English. There will not be too many online courses to find on this language. Nevertheless, it remains possible to look for some handy sources of materials. Even the famous Britannica covers the materials on this language of the West Papua province of Indonesia. Yet, visiting the island to learn the authentic West Papua language from the locals can always be the best alternative to any other possible way
