Abom language

Abom is a nearly extinct language spoken in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. According to a 2002 census, only 15 people still speak this language. All of the speakers are older adults. Middle-aged adults have some understanding of it, but no children speak or understand Abom.

Abom
RegionPapua New Guinea
Native speakers
15 (2002)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3aob
Glottologabom1238
ELPAbom[2]
Map: The Abom language of New Guinea
  The Abom language (located bottom center, to the west of the gulf)
  Other Trans–New Guinea languages
  Other Papuan languages
  Austronesian languages
  Uninhabited

Abom is spoken in Lewada (8.335225°S 142.780449°E / -8.335225; 142.780449 (Lewada)), Mutam (8.424996°S 142.930364°E / -8.424996; 142.930364 (Mutam)), and Tewara (8.374194°S 142.45638°E / -8.374194; 142.45638 (Dewala)) villages of Gogodala Rural LLG.[3][4]

Classification

Abom is not close to other languages. Pawley and Hammarström (2018) classify Abom as a divergent Tirio language on the basis of morphological evidence; Abom shares the same gender ablaut pattern as other Tirio languages.[5] Evans (2018), however, lists Abom as a separate branch of Trans-New Guinea.[6] Suter & Usher find that it is not an Anim language (the Trans–New Guinea family that includes the Tirio languages), but does appear to be divergent Trans–New Guinea.[7] Part of the problem is many recorded Abom words are loans from the Inland Gulf languages, reducing the material needed for comparison.

References
  1. Abom at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Abom.
  3. 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.
  4. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  5. Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  6. Evans, Nicholas (2018). "The languages of Southern New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 641–774. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

Bibliography
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