When it comes to linguistic diversity, nowhere on Earth compares to Papua New Guinea
- One in 10 of the world’s languages can be found in the Pacific nation, with its deep valleys, impenetrable vegetation and roughly 600 islands
If you are travelling to Papua New Guinea, you don’t need to pack a phrase book, you need to bring an entire library. With 841 living tongues and a colourful creole lingua franca, this Pacific nation is the undisputed world champion of linguistic diversity.
From Pii in the mist-cloaked highlands to Toaripi on the shores of the gleaming Coral Sea, Papua New Guinea is a linguist’s paradise, with one in 10 of the world’s languages found here.
The number of speakers of individual languages can range from a handful of people in the jungle – not much more than an extended family – to millions spread across provinces and terrains.
Experts point to the country’s relatively weak central government, deep valleys, almost impenetrable vegetation and roughly 600 islands to explain why a country of eight million people and smaller than Spain has such a bounty of languages, when 46 million Spaniards – for all practical purposes – make do with a dozen or so.
Many of these diverse tongues have developed undisturbed over tens of thousands of years, making Papua New Guinea something of a linguistic Galapagos.