Kwomtari

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A language of Papua New Guinea

ISO 639-3
kwo
Alternate Names
Kefe, Kisofe, Klefe
Autonym
Glefe
User Population

800 (Honsberger and Tupper 2008).

Location

Sandaun province: Amanab district, north of Namia. 6 villages.

Language Maps
Language Status

6a (Vigorous).

Classification
Kwomtari, Nuclear Kwomtari
Dialects

Western Kwomtari, Central Kwomtari, Eastern Kwomtari. Full mutual intelligibility among dialects. Lexical similarity: 94% or higher between all dialects.

Typology

SOV; Postpositions; Noun Head: Initial; Ergative-Absolutive; Agglutinating morphological system; Verbal affixation marks direction, accompaniment, distributive, motion, object, aspect, and subject; Aspects: 3 (Durative, Habitual, Repetitive); Consonants: 11, Vowels: 8.

Language Use

All domains except in church, where there is mixed use with Tok Pisin [tpi], and in interactions with outsiders. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Most also use Tok Pisin [tpi] (Honsberger and Tupper 2008).

Language Development

Literacy rate in L2: Low. Two community schools. Grammar. Bible portions: 2009.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Kwomtari
Writing

Latin script [Latn].

Other Comments

Traditional religion, Christian.