Ipiko (Epai, Higa, Ipikoi) is a
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 ...
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 ...
, the most divergent of the
Inland Gulf languages
The Inland Gulf languages are a family of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and Malcolm Ross (2005). The unity of the languages was established by K. Franklin in 1969. Although the family as a whole is cl ...
. Despite being spoken by only a few hundred people, language use is vigorous. It is spoken in Ipiko () and Pakemuba () villages,
with Ipiko village being located in Amipoke ward,
Baimuru Rural LLG,
Kikori District
Kikori District is a district of the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Kikori
Kikori is a small town in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea.
Kikori lies in the delta of the Kikori River at the head of the Gulf of Papua. Th ...
,
Gulf Province
Gulf Province is a province of Papua New Guinea located on the southern coast. The provincial capital is Kerema. The 34,472 km2 province is dominated by mountains, lowland river deltas, and grassland flood plains. In Gulf Province, the Kiko ...
.
Bibliography
;Word lists
*Chance, Sydney H. 1926. Vocabulary of Ipikoi. ''British New Guinea Annual Report'' 1925–1926: 91–91.
*Petterson, Robert. 1999. ''Rumu – English – Hiri-Motu Dictionary''. Palmerston North, New Zealand: International Pacific College.
*Z’graggen, John A. 1975. Comparative wordlists of the Gulf District and adjacent Areas. In: Richard Loving (ed.), ''Comparative Wordlists'' I. 5–116. Ukarumpa: SIL-PNG. (Rearranged version of Franklin ed. 1973: 541–592) with typographical errors.)
References
Inland Gulf languages
Languages of Papua New Guinea
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