A beautiful small island is home to only 7.6 million people, yet there are over 840 languages spoken in the country, making it the most linguistically diverse place on earth.
Papua New Guinea is located in the Pacific Ocean. While it has several official languages, including English, Hiri Motu, PNG Sign Language and Tok Pisin, the country has over 840 indigenous languages.
But how can a country so small have so many languages? It all started 40,000 years ago, when the first human settlers introduced the oldest group of the country’s languages, called “Papuan”.
The name is just used as an umbrella term for the languages, which are all completely unique, but they’re not the only languages spoken on the islands.
Another group of languages, known as Austronesian languages, arrived on the island around 3,500 years ago.
They are likely to have arrived from a single Taiwanese source, adding to the already diverse range of linguistics in Papua New Guinea.
The official languages of the island came about in the 1800s, after the arrival of English and German-speaking colonists. After the country’s independence in 1975, it adopted three official languages.
Despite having multiple official languages, because of the island’s unique topography, many villagers remain isolated, and with that, they preserve the languages from thousands of years ago.
Most of the residents in Papua New Guinea also live in rural areas; only 13 percent live in towns, which also helps to preserve the older languages.
Although there are so many languages spoken, Papuans have also embraced their official language of Tok Pisin, which is a creole based on English but with German, Portuguese, and native Papuan languages.
The language, which first came about in the 19th century, was developed over the years and today is spoken by four million Papuans.
