Dera (Dra, Dla) Mangguar and Kamberataro (Komberatoro) is a Senagi language of

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 ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. In Papua New Guinea, it is primarily spoken in Kamberataro village (), Amanab Rural LLG,

Sandaun Province Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea (also known as home of the sunset). It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population ...

Dialects

There are two dialects, namely ''Dla proper'' and ''Menggwa Dla''. Dla proper is spoken in the three main villages of Kamberatoro Mission (3°36′S 141°03′E; 1299 feet) in Papua New Guinea, Amgotro Mission (3°38′S 140°58′E; 1969 feet) and Komando village in

Papua Province Papua is a province of Indonesia, comprising the northern coast of Western New Guinea together with island groups in Cenderawasih Bay to the west. It roughly follows the borders of the Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri, and is divided in ...

, Indonesia. Komando village was formerly a Dutch border post. Other Dla proper speaking villages in Papua New Guinea are Tamarbek (), Akamari (), New Kamberatoro; Old Kamberatoro, ‘Border Village’, Nimberatoro (), Nindebai (), Mamamora (), Yamamainda (), Orkwanda (), and Lihen (). While Papua Province in Indonesia has the Dla villages of Amgotro, Komando, Indangan, Mongwefi, Buku, and Agrinda, which are mostly located in Yaffi District,

Keerom Regency Keerom Regency is one of the regencies (''kabupaten'') in the Papua Province of Indonesia. It was formed from the eastern districts then within Jayapura Regency with effect from 12 November 2002. It covers an area of 9,365 km2, and had a po ...

. Menggwa Dla, the less populous of the two dialects, is spoken in five villages located between Kamberatoro Mission and Komando village, which are Menggau, Wahai (), Ambofahwa (alternatively known as Wahai Nº 2), Wanggurinda (; 3°34′59″S, 141°01′41″E) in Papua New Guinea, and Menggwal (3°33′53″S, 140°59′04″E) in Papua Province, Indonesia.

Status

Dla (Dera) speakers are shifting to

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 ...

and

Papuan Malay Papuan Malay or Irian Malay is a Malay-based creole, Malay-based creole language spoken in the Papua (Indonesia), Indonesian part of New Guinea. It emerged as a contact language among tribes in Indonesian New Guinea (now Papua (Indonesian provin ...

. De Sousa (2006) reports that the younger generation born in the 1990s or later usually cannot speak Dera fluently, whereas the older generation remains fluent.

Phonology

Dera has 14 consonants (4 less than Angor), which are: Dera has 5 vowels (2 less than Angor), which are:

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words of Dera dialects are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: :

References

{{Languages of Papua New Guinea Senagi languages Languages of Sandaun Province Languages of Western New Guinea