Languages of Papua New Guinea (Dahl)

Languages of Papua New Guinea (Dahl)

Map Creator:   Östen Dahl & Ghazaleh Vafaeian
Data Source:   Various web sources including:
Papuan New Guinea Collection of Data Sources

Contact:   Östen Dahl & Ghazaleh Vafaeian, Stockholm University
Email: oestenling.su.se
Department of Linguistics
Stockholm University
S-106 91 Stockholm

Date Digitized:  Sept-2011

Map Description:
This map intends to show the distribution of the indigenous languages of the eastern part of the island of New Guinea, that is, the part that belongs to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (It thus excludes, for the time being, the Indonesian part of the island and the smaller islands included in Papua New Guinea.) Papua New Guinea is the country in the world that is home to the largest number of living languages, estimated at 830, or 12 per cent of all languages in the world. Of these, 700 are spoken on the main island. Although the geographical area covered is only about 400,000 sq. kms, this makes up roughly 10 per cent of the languages of the world. The map contains full or partial information about approximately 550 of these, or almost 8 per cent of the world's languages.