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Language Family

Pyu

New Guinea and Pacific Language Families

Pyu is a language isolate spoken across the border between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, with about 100 speakers as of 2000 in Biake No. 2 village of Sandaun Province's Green River Rural LLG in Papua New Guinea and roughly 150 more in Batom District, Pegunungan Bintang Regency, in Indonesia's Highland Papua province; a 2012 census recorded 250 native speakers in total. Timothy Usher has proposed linking it to the Left May and Amto-Musan languages within a broader Arai-Samaia stock, but the language is otherwise treated as an isolate.

Facts
Region
Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea, and Pegunungan Bintang Regency, Highland Papua, Indonesia 1
Speaker Count
100 1
About 100 speakers in Papua New Guinea as of 2000, per the cited source; it separately gives about 150 more in Indonesia, and the entity own existing description gives a combined 2012 census total of 250.
Proto-Language Status
Treated as a language isolate; Timothy Usher has proposed linking it with the Left May and Amto-Musan languages in a broader Arai-Samaia stock, not generally accepted. 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Pyu Language (Papuan)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section: village and district
    It is spoken in Biake No. 2 village of Biake ward, Green River Rural LLG in Sandaun Province.
  • Lead section: Papua New Guinea speaker count
    As of 2000, the language had about 100 speakers in Papua New Guinea.
  • Lead section: classification proposal
    Timothy Usher has proposed linking it to the Left May and Amto-Musan languages within a broader Arai-Samaia stock, but the language is otherwise treated as an isolate.
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