Makolkol is a possible

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 geogra ...

formerly spoken on the

Gazelle Peninsula The Gazelle Peninsula is a large peninsula in northeastern East New Britain, Papua New Guinea located on the island of New Britain within the Bismarck Archipelago, situated in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The Rabaul caldera is located on the ...

East New Britain Province East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely d ...

on the island of

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. Stebbins (2010) reports it is unattested. Palmer (2018) treats it as unclassified. It is not known if it was related to the neighboring

Baining languages The Baining languages are a small language family spoken by the Baining people on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. They appear to be related to the neighboring Taulil–Butam languages, which immigrated from New Ireland. ...

. Rosensteel (1988) contains a 174-word list of Makolkol.

Sociolinguistic situation

Makolkol was spoken only in the village of Gunapeo. Speakers were shifting to

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...

and Meramera.Makolkol
''Languages of Papua New Guinea''. SIL International.
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. Rosensteel (1988) reported that out of a total population of about 35 ethnic people, there were 7 elderly fluent speakers.Rosensteel, Gary L. 1988. ''A sociolinguistic survey report on five Baining languages: Kairak, Makolkol, Mali, Simbali and Uramët''. Unpublished manuscript. Ukarumpa: SIL.

References

Languages of East New Britain Province Extinct languages of Papua New Guinea Unclassified languages of Oceania Languages extinct in the 2000s Baining languages East Papuan languages {{papuan-lang-stub