Watiwa is a Rai Coast language of Papua New Guinea.

Watiwa
Dumpu
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMadang Province
Native speakers
510 (2003)[1]
none
Language codes
ISO 639-3wtf
Glottologdump1243

It is spoken by some 500 people living in six villages in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea, including Bebei (5°51′43″S 145°42′43″E / 5.861935°S 145.711953°E / -5.861935; 145.711953 (Bembe)) and Dumpu (5°53′20″S 145°44′10″E / 5.888972°S 145.736011°E / -5.888972; 145.736011 (Dumpu / Taborabo 1 and 2)) villages of Usino Rural LLG.[2][3]

It is more commonly known as Dumpu, but this is the name of one of the six villages, and is not accepted as a name for the language. Surviving mostly as a secret language with which to talk amongst themselves when outsiders are present,[4] the majority of the speakers use Tok Pisin in daily life. Due to its increasingly rare use, it is estimated that this language will be extinct in a few decades.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Watiwa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
  3. ^ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  4. ^ a b "PNG Language Resources endangered languages document" (PDF). SIL International. Retrieved 2009-05-13.