Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Biksi Yetfa language

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Region
  
West Papua

Native speakers
  
1,000 (1996)

Dialects
  
Yetfa Biksi

Ethnicity
  
Yetfa, Biksi

Language family
  
Sepik? Biksi-Yetfa

Native to
  
Indonesia, Papua New Guinea

Yetfa and Biksi (Biaksi) are dialects of a language spoken in West Papua, Indonesia, and across the border in Papua New Guinea. It's a trade language in West Papua up to the PNG border.

The language is not close to others. Ross (2005), following Laycock & Z’Graggen (1975), places Biksi in its own branch of the Sepik family, but there is little data to base a classification on. The similarities noted by Laycock are sporadic and may simply be loans; Ross based his classification on pronouns, but they are dissimilar enough for the connection to be uncertain. According to Hammarström (2008), it's being passed on to children and is not in immediate danger.

References

Biksi-Yetfa language Wikipedia