Pagi, or Bembi, is a Papuan language spoken by 2,000 people in five villages in Sandaun Province and in Vanimo District of Papua New Guinea, near the border with Indonesian Papua.

Overview

The name "Bewani" attributes to the mountains that form a boundary between Vanimo and Amanab Districts. The ''Imbinis'' dialect of Pagi is spoken in ''Imbinis'' () and ''Imbio'' () villages. Neighboring languages include Ainbai and Kilmeri, also

Border languages The Border or Upper Tami languages are an independent family of Papuan languages in Malcolm Ross's version of the Trans–New Guinea proposal. Unlike the neighboring Sepik languages and many other Papuan language families of northern New Guine ...

belonging to the Bewani branch.

Usage

''Pagi'' is spoken near Bewani Station (), Idoli (), and Amoi () villages in Bewani-Wutung Onei Rural LLG. Tok Pisin is generally used by the government officials and in families where husband and wife belong to communities speaking different indigenous languages. The region is also influenced by English, which is the main language used in schools of the region, accompanied occasionally by Tok Pisin.Brown, Robert. 1981
A sociolinguistic survey of Pagi and Kilmeri
Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages 29. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

References

{{Border languages (New Guinea) Border languages (New Guinea) Languages of Sandaun Province