Kala Biŋatuwã: Bones of the Words

The Kala Language Documentation Project

Papua New Guinea, nearly the size of California, is the world center of linguistic diversity and home to 862 of about 7000 known languages. Many of PNG’s languages are un- or under-documented. Beginning 2016, Bishop Museum led a project to document Kala, an endangered language, which was unwritten until 2010.

Six Kala-speaking villages are located along 100 kilometers of coastal Morobe Province. Despite the close proximity of Kala speakers, there are four dialects; each of the northern villages (Manindala, Lambu, and Apoze) have their own dialect and the three southern villages (Kamiali, Alẽso and Kui) share a dialect.