The Susuami language is a heavily endangered

Papuan language The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...

, spoken in the resettlement village of Manki () along the upper Watut River,

Morobe Province Morobe is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810 (2011 census), and since the division of Southern Highlands Province ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

Demographics

In 1980, it was estimated at 50 speakers, and faced competition from the several other languages spoken in the village, including distantly-related Hamtai and Angaataha, as well as the usual use of

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin ( ,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh ; ), often referred to by English speakers as New Guinea Pidgin or simply Pidgin, is an English-based creole languages, English creole language spoken throughou ...

with outsiders. In 1990, there are about a dozen speakers, and children were not learning the language, including the child of the only couple in the village who were both native speakers. Its continued survival is unlikely.

References

Bernard Comrie Bernard Sterling Comrie, (; born 23 May 1947) is a British linguist. Comrie is a specialist in linguistic typology, linguistic universals and on Caucasian languages. Personal life Early life and education Comrie was born in Sunderland, Eng ...

, Stephen Matthews, and Maria Polinsky. ''The Atlas of Languages''. New York: Facts on File. Page 109. * Smith, Geoffrey P. 1990. ''Susuami: An Angan Language of the Upper Watut Valley, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea''. Lae: Department of Language and Communication Studies, Papua New Guinea University of Technology. Angan languages Critically endangered languages Languages of Morobe Province Endangered Papuan languages {{papuan-lang-stub