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1 Introduction
The SIL-PNG survey team conducted a survey of four Arawe languages in West New Britain between the 21st of October and the 10th of November 2009. The team consisted of Bonnie MacKenzie, Juliann
Spencer, Sara Van Cott and Jacob Bullock. The languages researched during the survey were Amio- Gelimi [let], listed as Lesing-Gelimi in the sixteenth edition of the Ethnologue Lewis 2009; Ambul [apo],
called Apalik in the Ethnologue; Avau [avb]; and Bebeli [bek].
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The fieldwork in Amio-Gelimi was conducted during 27–30 October 2009. The goals of the survey were to determine language and dialect
boundaries and evaluate language vitality. The survey team wishes to express its deep appreciation for the kind assistance and hospitality of the
people in the Amio-Gelimi villages of Amio, Kaskas, Atui and Poronga, and also to the residents of Pokolok village, near Gasmata Station. Furthermore, we would like to thank the individuals and groups
who took the time to answer many questions about the Amio-Gelimi language, history, culture and communities, and the educators and church leaders who talked with us about these institutions and the
people they serve. This survey would not have been possible without them.
1.1 Language location
The Amio-Gelimi language area is located on the south coast of West New Britain. The western end of the language area is about eighteen kilometres east of Gasmata Station. Map 1 shows the location of
Amio-Gelimi within Papua New Guinea and Map 2 shows the location of the language area within New Britain.
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ISO codes will be listed alongside each language the first time it is mentioned.
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Map 1. Amio-Gelimi in Papua New Guinea
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Map 2. Amio-Gelimi in New Britain
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Map 3 shows the Amio-Gelimi language area and surrounding language areas, as well as relevant villages not included in other maps. The boundaries drawn for language areas are primarily based on the
villages known to belong to each language and are therefore only approximations. The boundaries are not intended as a statement of land ownership.
Map 3. Amio-Gelimi and neighbouring languages
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Two of the Amio-Gelimi villages, Kaskas and Atui, are located on small islands with some facilities and houses on the adjacent south coast of New Britain Island. The other two, Amio and Poronga, are
entirely on the south coast of the New Britain Island. Amio-Gelimi villages, facilities and nearby Mangseng [mbh] villages are shown in Map 4.
Map 4. Amio-Gelimi villages
1.2 Language name and classification
Many names have been applied to the Amio-Gelimi language, including Lesing-Gelimi, Lesing-Atui, Lesing, Atui, Gelimi, Amio and Poronga. Ethnologue currently refers to the language as Lesing-Gelimi,
with the ISO code
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[let] and lists Atui and Lesing-Atui as alternate names. However, people living in Amio and Kaskas villages call their dialect Amio, and those living in Atui and Poronga refer to their
variety as Gelimi. The word ‘lesing’ means ‘language’ in the Amio dialect, but people in the area do not use it as a name for any of their languages. Speakers of the Amio dialect sometimes refer to the Gelimi
dialect as Poronga, but all residents in the Gelimi villages said that they call their dialect Gelimi.
Since speakers of each dialect identify strongly with their own dialect, neither Amio nor Gelimi would be a satisfactory name for the language as a whole. The language is therefore referred to as Amio-
Gelimi throughout this report.
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The International Organization for Standardization ISO standard 639-3 provides standardised three-letter identification codes for languages.
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Amio-Gelimi is a member of the East Arawe subgroup. The other members of this group are Akolet [akt], Avau and Bebeli. Figure 1 shows the classification of Amio-Gelimi and the other Arawe languages,
according to the Ethnologue.
1.3 Population
