Documentation and description of Papitalai, an Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea

Jessica Cleary-Kemp, University of California, Berkeley

Project Details:

Individual Graduate Studentship. Duration: 2010-2013. £59,397

Project Summary:

Papitalai [ISO-639 pat] is an Oceanic (Austronesian) language spoken by several hundred people on Manus Island, approximately 200 miles off the north coast of the Papua New Guinea mainland (2"03'S, 147O24'E). Although under significant pressure from the encroachment of Tok Pisin and English, the community has a strong linguistic identity and is enthusiastic about maintaining their language. This project will work with speakers to create an annotated audio and video corpus of a variety of Papitalai discourse genres. Practical outcomes will include a published collection of texts, pedagogical materials, and a reference grammar to be submitted as a PhD dissertation.