Previous research Other background information

1.5 Other background information

1.5.1 Previous research

Dutton 1969 defines Biage as the name of a tribe who populate Kovelo and Savaea, with some at Kanga. He also notes that “this term, has broadened in reference, until today it may be used to denote any non-Orokaiva, non-Chirima River inhabitant of the Kokoda sub-district.” Dutton’s research covers six dialects of Mountain Koiali, as shown in map 6. Map 6. Dutton’s map of Koiali villages The Biage and Isurava groups spoke what Dutton defined as the Northern dialect of Mountain Koiali. The other Mountain Koiali speakers living in Oro province were at Awomo and Kovio, which he defined as the Eastern and Lesser-Eastern dialects respectively. He also defined Southern, Central and Western dialects of the language, which are located in Central province. He estimated the total number of Mountain Koiali speakers to be 3734, much higher than Ethnologue’s current population estimate of 1700 based on Dutton 1975. The New Testament was translated in Efogi which is located in the Central dialect and has the largest number of speakers. According to Dutton, it is also the most prestigious and dominant dialect. Garland 1979 echoes this view, noting that people “will often switch to Efogi talk in order to make us feel comfortable.” Dutton notes the following cognate percentages between the dialects of Mountain Koiali: 5 Efogi – Kaili central – northern: 79–82 Efogi – Awoma central – eastern: 85–88 Efogi – Kovio central – lesser eastern: 78–82 Kaili – Kanga northern – northern: 89 Kaili – Awoma northern – eastern: 73–75 Awoma – Kovio eastern – lesser eastern: 82–85 Garland 1979 has a much narrower description of Mountain Koiali than Dutton; he does not mention the villages in Dutton’s Western dialect at all, neither does he mention most of Dutton’s Southern dialect villages only Naoro. Dutton’s Central dialect he splits into three dialects Efogi, Kagi and Manumu. In Oro Province he mentions only Awoma and Kovio as one dialect and Isurava as another; he does not mention Kovelo, Savaea or Kanga villages. He notes that the differences between Mountain Koiali dialects are found in lexical and phonological variations with some variation in verbal endings. Garland notes that “the Isulava [sic] and Efogi dialects are most dissimilar in vocabulary and intonation being 79 cognate.” He concludes that literature in Efogi dialect will be used easily by the three most central and Awoma dialects, and that Naoro Garland’s southern dialect and Isurava Garland’s northern dialect would be able to use it but it may not appeal to them as much because of the vocabulary differences. In his letter to SIL in 1996, Cameron Venables listed 11 Biage-speaking villages: Kanga, Sawaia [sic], Ebe [sic], Kovelo, Isurava, Alola, Pelai, Kagi, Efogi and Manumu. The last three of these villages are in Central Province. According to Garland 2001 personal communication, Biage may include three villages in Central Province, one being Kagi, but Efogi is not a part of Biage. In our research, Biage people never included any Central Province villages in their definition of Biage. When they came up in conversation they were called Koiari, not Biage. Some people said the name Koiari also included Biage, but they said that the villages in Central Province were a different dialect. 2 Methodology

2.1 Village sampling