Mato

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A language of Papua New Guinea

ISO 639-3
met
Alternate Names
Nenaya, Nengaya, Nineia
Autonym
Mato
User Population

700 (Stober 2013).

Location

Morobe province: Huon peninsula north coast, near Morobe-Madang provincial border, Uruwa river plain west of Wasu, north of Sapmanga, southeast of Saidor.

Language Maps
Language Status

4 (Educational).

Classification
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Western Oceanic, North New Guinea, Ngero-Vitiaz, Vitiaz, Roinji-Nenaya
Dialects

Ramuk, Tabares. Dialects are mutually intelligible. Lexical similarity: 54% with Uma [roe], 29%–32% with Pano [mqz] dialects, 28% with Karnai [bbv], 23% with Arop-Lokep [apr], 20% with Mala [mmt] (Stober 2013).

Typology

SVO; Prepositions, with one clitic postposition; Noun Head: Initial; Noun classes: 3 (Alienable, Inalienable, Local); Genders: None; Verbal affixation marks subject, object, causation, transitivity, distribution, intensity, direction, nominalization; Consonants: 16, Vowels: 5 (Stober 2013).

Language Use

Not endangered (2000 D. Tryon). All domains, except church. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Most also use Tok Pisin [tpi]. Used as L2 by Nukna [klt], Pano [mqz].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L1: Over 50%. Literacy rate in L2: 41%. Taught in primary schools in early grades only, in 3 schools. Literature. Texts. NT: 2018.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Mato
Writing

Latin script [Latn].

Other Comments

Christian, traditional religion.