Kembra language
Encyclopedia
The Kembra language is an unclassified
Papuan language spoken in Western New Guinea
by some twenty persons. It appears to be used by 20% to 60% of the ethnic population and is no longer passed down to children, which makes it an endangered language
In 2007, on a Papuan language website, a Mark Donohue reported that,
Unclassified language
Unclassified languages are languages whose genetic affiliation has not been established by means of historical linguistics. If this state of affairs continues after significant study of the language and efforts to relate it to other languages, as in the case of Basque, it is termed a language...
Papuan language spoken in Western New Guinea
Western New Guinea
West Papua informally refers to the Indonesian western half of the island of New Guinea and other smaller islands to its west. The region is officially administered as two provinces: Papua and West Papua. The eastern half of New Guinea is Papua New Guinea.The population of approximately 3 million...
by some twenty persons. It appears to be used by 20% to 60% of the ethnic population and is no longer passed down to children, which makes it an endangered language
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
In 2007, on a Papuan language website, a Mark Donohue reported that,
- MurkimMurkim languageMurkim is an unclassified Papuan language spoken in Western New Guinea, near the unclassified languages Lepki and Kembra. Though spoken by fewer than 300 people, it's being learned by children....
[and] LepkiLepki languageLepki is an unclassified Papuan language spoken in Western New Guinea, near the unclassified languages Murkim and Kembra.In 2007, on a Papuan language website, a Mark Donohue reported that,However, Ethnologue 16 notes a "possible genetic similarities with Murkim"....
[and] Kembra are, along with a number of other langauges [sic], unclassified groups living between the main cordillera and Mt. 6234, in the north of Papua near the PNG border (where 'near' = up to about 6 days' walk). They don't appear to be related to each other, based on wordlists, and they don't appear to show external affiliations.http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/papuanlanguages/2007-May/000142.html