Weri | Ethnologue

A language of Papua New Guinea

ISO 639: aon
Alternate Names: Bambita Arapesh, Bumbita Arapesh, But Arapesh
Autonym: Weri
Population: 4,340 (2003 SIL). Ethnic population: 8,680.
Location:: East Sepik province: Maprik district, Torricelli mountains, south of Wom. 13 villages.
Language Status: 6b (Threatened).
Classification: Torricelli, Kombio-Arapesh, Arapesh
Dialects: Bonahoi, Timingir, Urita, Weril, Werir. Weril and Werir mutually intelligible. Lexical similarity: 30% with Bukiyip [ape].
Language Use: Young people mainly use Tok Pisin [tpi] (Wurm 2007). Some young people, all adults. Mostly middle-aged and older, youth in 2 villages (Wurm 2007). All also use Tok Pisin [tpi] (Dobrin 2014).
Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: 15%–25%. Literacy rate in L2: 25%–50%. Weril and Werir use different materials for beginning literacy. Bible portions: 2007.
Language Resources: OLAC resources in and about Weri
Writing: Latin script [Latn].
Other Comments: Different from Weri dialect of Amam [wer].

Location: East Sepik province: Maprik district, Torricelli mountains, south of Wom. 13 villages.