to be a linguistic case, however, for joint language development work to be done between the Watuts and neighbouring languages.
1990: Landweer and Reitmaier complete a sociolinguistic survey of Middle Watut. They say there
are four Middle Watut villages: Babuaf, Marauna, Bencheng and Dungutung 1990:4. Regarding languages spoken in the region, they report the following: “[an informant] from [Bencheng] indicated
that originally every clan spoke a different ‘language’ and traditionally lived in separate locations” ibid., 2. Table 5 presents language information reported to the team by the informant.
Table 5. Languages reported by the informant during 1990 Middle Watut survey
Language Villages
Clans
Tsangkak Gumots, Wawas, Maralangko
Madzim Babuaf
Warang, Efafago, 23 of Molago
Dzoents Marauna
13 of Molago Tsang
Bencheng Molago, Laedzig, Baich,
Bolal, Dofung Bolal, Wagong
Dungutung Waroh
Uruf, Morom, Mafanazo Landweer and Reitmaier conclude that “This data from [the informant] substantiates the impression
expressed by Hooley 1965:6 that the villages represent ‘about six dialects’” ibid., 3. Landweer and Reitmaier also say they classify the vernaculars of Babuaf, Marauna, Bencheng and Dungutung as “Mid
Watut,” following Fischer, and Holzknecht ibid.. They say,
From statements made by people in [Babuaf], [Marauna] and [Bencheng] we gather that historically each of the various clans was located in individual villages in the surrounding
mountains. Then, beginning with the Lutheran missionization the clans either gathered themselves or were gathered in composite villages, down in the valley. This process was further encouraged
forced? during World War II. It may be that the distinctive dialect situation referred to earlier is an artefact remaining from the time when the clans lived in separate mountain hamlets.
Landweer and Reitmaier 1990:4
Our similar findings regarding the connection between languages and origins in the Watut Valley and implications for language development are discussed in section 7.1.
The 1990 team collected a Tsang
10
vernacular wordlist in Bencheng, a Bolal list in Dungutung, a Wagong list in Dungutung, and lists in Marauna and Babuaf. Their lexicostatistical analysis showed 85–
96 apparent cognates between Tsang and the other lists. Tsang and Wagong respectively shared 57 and 80 apparent cognates with a North Watut wordlist from Holzknecht ibid., 13. The team notes
that “in spite of...precautions, the wordlists appear to be to some extent a mixture of all the varieties spoken in the area” ibid., 12. Perhaps Fischer encountered a similar difficulty, resulting in the cognate
counts which Holzknecht felt were high.
In regard to vitality of the Middle Watut vernaculars, the 1990 team concluded that there is “continuing use though mixed of the vernacular in the domains of home, cultural and social events, but
primary use of other languages in the domains of church, education, and outside commercial enterprise” ibid., 17. The team recommended that a vernacular language development program be started in the
area.
10
Note that some spellings of the dialects reported by the 1990 team differ from the spellings used in this report.
2.5 Clause structure, phonology and grammar of the Watut vernaculars
