4 Language and dialect boundaries
Map 3. Language boundaries
As seen in map 3, Migum is a member of the Kabenau language family, Yabong belongs to the Yoganon family and Neko and Nekgini are in the Gusap-Mot family.
4.1 Reported language and dialect boundaries
There are no clear perceived dialect distinctions within these four languages. The distinction between the languages themselves seems to be clear and undisputed with the exception of Nekgini and Neko, which
are seen by a number of villages as being the same language. In both of the Neko villages visited Damoing and Warai, respondents listed all of the Nekgini villages as part of the Neko language area.
Also, respondents in the Nekgini village of Serieng identified Damoing and Warai as part of the Nekgini language.
Yabong language The four villages
that we visited Masi, Bidua, Basor and Baded have all reported themselves as being in the Yabong language area. All four villages also reported Gogou village to be a part of the Yabong
language. Some villages reported that the following hamlets are near larger villages and other speakers may consider them to be a part of the larger villages: Amasi Masi village, Fogwang Baded village and
Frengen Baded village.
Three of the four Yabong villages we visited reported that Lalo, which is a small village near Lamtub, is a Yabong-speaking village. Bidua village did not report this information. This is interesting
since Lamtub reported that only a few of their people have the ability to understand Yabong, and none can speak it. It could be that this report was referring to a settlement of Yabong speakers near Lamtub.
Bidua village reported Singor as a Yabong-speaking village. However, Singor reported that people there cannot understand or speak any vernacular other than Migum.
© SIL-PNG. Geodata from worldgeodatasets.com Used with permission.
Masi village reported that all of the villages except Baded are part of the Kaum dialect of Yabong. There were no other clear dialect distinctions made by the people, except for a few comments that Baded
did not speak very pure Yabong. Migum language
Lamtub and Singor each reported the other as a Migum village. Lamtub also reported a village called Kwarbeng as being part of the Migum language, but we were not able to locate it. No other villages were
ever reported to be part of the Migum language by any other village. Lamtub reported that all the Migum villages speak the same language, whereas Singor claimed that
they themselves spoke differently from the rest of the language area. Nekgini language
The four villages that we visited Sorang, Asang, Reite, Serieng each reported their own village and the other three as being part of the Nekgini language. Three of these four villages reported that Damoing
village is also part of the Nekgini language area. Asang village did not report this information. However, Reite described Damoing as speaking Neko even though they listed it as a village within the Nekgini
language area. Reite and Serieng also included Warai village in the Nekgini language area. Sorang reported the Ngaing-speaking village, Maibang, as speaking Nekgini. Serieng reported Goriyo village as
Nekgini.
When asked about differences in the Nekgini language, all Nekgini villages reported that they each speak a little differently from the others and that the variety spoken in their own village is the purest
form of Nekgini. There is one exception to this rule in that Reite claimed that Serieng also speaks the same as they do, although Serieng did not make that same claim about Reite.
Neko language Damoing and Warai villages are in complete agreement as to who speaks the Neko language. They claim
that both of their villages speak the Neko language and they also include the four villages of the Nekgini language as speaking Neko along with the village of Goriyo.
There is not a clear reported distinction between the Neko and Nekgini languages. Most villages in both language areas reported that all or most of the villages in the other language speak the same
language as they do. It is not clear if this is due to linguistic similarity between the two languages, to passive bilingualism, or to both of these factors combined.
4.2 Methodology of lexical comparison
