Melpa language

Spoken in

• Papuan Trans - New Guinea languages Melpa

-

Paa

Med

Melpa (also Medlpa, Hagen ) is a language spoken in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea language of the Trans - New Guinea languages. Language code according to ISO / DIS 639-3: med

The language is spoken by an estimated 130,000 people (SIL 1991). It thus has a comparatively great importance, even beyond the native speaker out. Translations of the New Testament exist, even if can less than ten percent of the speakers to read and write in their native language. Almost all the speakers speak next Melpa also the lingua franca Tok Pisin and other local languages ​​( Ek Nii, etc.).

Another peculiarity of the Melpa language is their binary number system:

The Melpa spokesman operate predominantly agriculture. Main crops are sweet potato, taro and yams. As a cash crop is spread coffee ( Arabica coffee).

Like other Guinean Highland groups belong to the Melpas various Christian denominations. Spreads are Catholics, Lutherans and Adventists. The Melpa Lutheran Church split from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea, but is not recognized by the Lutheran World Federation. Besides that, there traditional religions. An essential element of the traditional religion of Melpa is the belief in ancestral spirits, the spirits of deceased family or clan members. Traditional healers also function as a medium between the world of humans and spirits. Christianity has only received with the establishment of the administrative center Mount Hagen in the 1930s collection.

• Single language
• Papuan