Indonesia Conference Directory

The starting point of this article is that the extinction of a particular language will lead to simultenuous loss of various forms of its cultural heritage, especially with regard to the loss of both traditional heritage and oral expressions of its native speakers. Native Papuans are those from the Melanesian race speaking native languages in the Province of West Papua – the ones living in a physical ecology of mostly island clusters, black, and spread throughout the region. In line with current language policy to preserve local languages in Indonesia, it is important to provide valid data on local languages in Indonesia. The findings of the investigation on the local languages in the Province of West Papua are as follows. The local languages in the province can be divided into four language groups: (1) The phylum of Austronesia; (2) the phylum of West Papua; (3) the phylum of the Birds Head of Papua; and (4) The phylum of Trans- West Papua. Those four groups can fall into another two categories of Austronesian and Non-Austronesian. Based on the characteristics of the social environment of the languages, most native languages in the Province of West Papua can be categorized as those having less than 1,000 speakers. Languages having less than 500 speakers are endangered as they are close to extinction. Language codification in the West Papua are based on: (1) the typology of language ecolology; (2) Summer Institut of Linguistics (SIL) database; (3) The Republic of Indonesia-s Language Development and Fostering Agency database.