French researcher archives dying language

By MELYNE BAROI
A NATIVE language in Gulf’s Kibiri village has become endangered and the remaining speakers of this language do not use it anymore.
The language is being studied by Moise’s Velasquez, a doctor of philosophy (PhD) student from Universite’ Sorbonne Nouvelle in France.
Velasquez has been in the country since January, studying this particular language in Kikori.
“I discovered that among the vast diversity of languages, the Kibiri language was slowly dying as only 32 speakers exist,” he said.
“But they barely use it to communicate.”
Velasquez said many people there only spoke Pidgin, Motu and English.
“The oldest of these speakers is 90 and the youngest is 39 but you’ll never hear them use it,” he said.
On his study, Velasquez would ask the speakers to role play while speaking the language for audio and visual recordings.
“They value the language, but it seems as if they have just given up,” he said.
“PNG is rich with linguistic diversity, but the introduction of other languages can threaten its existence.”
Valequez said PNG needed to start indigenous language campaigns in schools in order to keep its vitality.