Contact with other language groups

3.1.8 Contact with other language groups

People gave three main sources of contact they have with other language groups: trading, travel to town and marriage. For people living inland, these contacts vary from once a week to once every few months. Children going to school spend time in the villages of Lamtub Migum and Dein Karo while attending school. Migum has more contact with outside languages due to the traffic of people on their way to town, coming to attend Lamtub Primary School, and buying from the trade stores. Trading patterns Traditionally, trading patterns reached from the coastal villages as far away as Bilbil near Madang. Clay pots and other items available along the coast were the basis for the trades. After establishing trade routes along the coast, the coastal villages began trading with villages in the mountains. With one exception, all the mountain villages claimed one of the coastal villages of Singor, Lamtub or Warai as a traditional trading partner. All Yabong villages listed Lamtub as a traditional trading partner, while some also mentioned Singor. All Nekgini villages listed Singor as their traditional trading partner. Damoing, a village in the Neko language area, listed Warai also in the Neko language area as their trading partner along with several villages further east. 10 At the present time these trading relationships continue, but in a diminished manner. Two villages claim that it has ended completely. The current pattern seems to be built on relationships between individual villages. It is not clear whether traditional trading relationships were only between individuals or if they were formally recognised at the village or language level. Coastal villages supply dry coconuts and fish while mountain villages supply betelnut, peanuts, and tobacco. The pattern of trade stores on the coast and dinghies for transport seems to show that the current cash economy was built on these traditional trading patterns. We found no evidence of any other traditional social contacts. Traditional enemies Six of the twelve villages visited reported that their traditional enemies were neighbouring villages. The other six villages identified their traditional enemies as the nearest neighbouring communites of Karo, Iyo or Ngaing speakers. Unidentified people in the mountains were also mentioned as enemies. The one exception to these responses was Singor, who did not know who their traditional enemies had been. There does not appear to be any remaining animosity or tension with traditional enemies. Respondents in all language groups consistently reported that fighting ended long ago and there are no remaining problems. As far as we could tell from our short trip, there is no evidence of enmity between any villages or larger groups of people. Ease of travel The preferred means of travel inside the survey area is on foot. In order to go farther from their language area, people travel by dinghy or ship along the coast as that is the fastest and most available method of travel. Only the Yabong people need to leave their language area to catch a dinghy or ship and when they do they go to the Migum villages of Lamtub and Singor. 10 Along the Rai Coast there are usually language areas located on the coast that only include villages located on the coast. The same is true of language areas located inland; normally they do not include any coastal villages. However, Neko is an exception because it has both Warai, a coastal village, and Damoing, an inland village. Villages on the coast seem to be the ones most affected by current travel patterns due to the location of the schools and the fact that many people come through their villages on the way to town.

3.1.9 Immigration and emigration