What is the West Papua language mostly used? Being known as a province in Indonesia with many traditions and cultures, West Papua must have numerous languages to use also. But sure, among them, there must be languages that are used for communication by people the most.
Undeniably, the mostly-used language in West Papua is quite difficult to identify. It needs further research to know about it accurately. But at least, the following languages are claimed to have the most users aside from the Indonesian language. What are they?
Ma’ya Language
Ma’ya Language is said to be the mostly-used traditional language in West Papua for some reasons. One of them is that the language is used by many traditional tribes in the area. Indeed, those traditional tribes may not be the biggest tribes like Asmat or Dani. But if you sum up their people the number must be significant.
Those tribes include the Wawiyai Tribe who live in the Kabui Bay, Laganyan Tribe in the Araway neighborhood, and Kawe Tribe in the Selpele neighborhood. While they use the same language, the dialects are different based on the area they live in.
Ambel Language
Ambel is the name of the language for the West Papuan community who lives in neighborhoods around Mayalibit Bay such as Warsamdin, Wairemak, Kalitoko, Waifoi, and more.
Slightly, the Ambel language sounds the same as other languages in the West Papua particularly Ma’ya. However, if you are learning about them more deeply, those languages are very different although some of the vocabularies are similar.
Batanta Language
Next, there is the Batanta language that is used by people who live on southern Batanta Island. The island may be small but the population is quite dense for the area of Papua. The island itself has many villages and neighborhoods. Mainly in the southern area, the neighborhoods that use the Batanta language are Wailebet and Yenanas.
Tepin Language
One of the most popular islands around West Papua is Salawati Island. Salawati Island has neighborhoods in which some of them use the Tepin language. Those neighborhoods are Kalyam, Solol, Kapatlap, and Samate. The neighborhoods with Tepin language are located in the northeastern area. Although people in those neighborhoods use the same language; Tepin, their dialects are different. The dialects are divided into 3, they are Kalyam-Solol, Kapatlap, and Samate.
Moi Language
Most people in the Samate neighborhood indeed on Tepin Language, but the minority of them use a different language, it is Moi language. Some people in it are also bilinguals anyway.
The presence of the Moi language in the Samate neighborhood is influenced by some neighborhoods around such as Kalobo and Sakabu. The dialect of Moi is also used widely by people in the “bird-head” area that is directly borders with the Sale Strait of the Papua Island even if they use other languages including Indonesian.
Matbat Language
Matbat language is used by the native people of Misool Island. The speakers of the language spread in many neighborhoods such as Salafen, Atkari, Folley, Lenmalas, Tomolol, and many more. Currently, even many comers start to learn and use the language.
Misool Language
Aside from the native people, the Misool Island has been filled by many comers from other areas. As they have been there since centuries ago, those comers don’t look so much different from the native ones. The comers of the Misool Island live in neighborhoods such as Waigama, Fafanlap, Lilinta, Yelu, Usaha Jaya, Harapan Jaya, and more. Most of them are moslems.
The blend of the native and foreign languages is generally called the Misool language. The number of speakers is not more than the Matbat language but this West Papua language is still relevant in this area.
