Papuan language
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non- Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly ge ...
of
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
.
It was spoken in Botawa village of Waropen Bawah Subdistrict in
Waropen Regency
Waropen Regency is one of the regencies (''kabupaten'') in Papua Province, Indonesia. The Regency covers an area of 10,847.97 km2, and it had a population of 24,639 at the 2010 Census and 33,943 at the 2020 Census. The official estimate as at mid ...
. Woria is also spoken in Botawa village.
It shared half of its basic vocabulary with the Rasawa language, but it is not clear that they were related. Saponi shared none of its pronouns with the Lakes Plain family that Rasawa is part of; indeed its basic pronouns ''mamire'' "I, we" and ''ba'' "thou" are reminiscent of proto–East Bird's Head *meme "we" and *ba "thou".