Weri

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A language of Papua New Guinea

ISO 639-3
aon
Alternate Names
Bambita Arapesh, Bumbita Arapesh, But Arapesh
Autonym
Weri
User Population

4,340 (2003 SIL). Ethnic population: 8,680.

Location

East Sepik province: Maprik district, Torricelli mountains, south of Wom. 13 villages.

Language Maps
Language Status

6b (Threatened).

Classification
Torricelli, Kombio-Arapesh, Arapesh
Dialects

Bonahoi, Timingir, Urita, Weril, Werir. Weril and Werir mutually intelligible. Lexical similarity: 30% with Bukiyip [ape].

Language Use

Young people mainly use Tok Pisin [tpi] (Wurm 2007). Some young people, all adults. Mostly middle-aged and older, youth in 2 villages (Wurm 2007). All also use Tok Pisin [tpi] (Dobrin 2014).

Language Development

Literacy rate in L1: 15%–25%. Literacy rate in L2: 25%–50%. Weril and Werir use different materials for beginning literacy. Bible portions: 2007.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Weri
Writing

Latin script [Latn].

Other Comments

Different from Weri dialect of Amam [wer].