Yawa languages
| Yawan | |
|---|---|
| Yapen | |
| Geographic distribution | central Yapen Island, Cenderawasih Bay |
| Linguistic classification | West Papuan or independent language family
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | yawa1259 |
The Yawa languages, also known as Yapen languages, are a small family of two closely related Papuan languages, Yawa (or Yava) and Saweru. Due to their strong similarity, they are sometimes considered to be divergent dialects of a single language – in which case, that language would be an isolate.
They are spoken on central Yapen Island and nearby islets, in Cenderawasih Bay, Indonesian Papua, which they share with the Austronesian Yapen languages.
Yawa proper had 6000 speakers in 1987. Saweru has been variously reported: 1/ to be partially intelligible with other dialects of Yawa and to be considered a dialect of Yawa by its speakers, or 2/ to be too divergent for intelligibility and to be perceived as a separate language. Saweru is moribund, being spoken by 150 people out of an ethnic group of 300.