Language

Hahudi Farobo – chairman, Kutubu Foe Culture sees that the original language is fading away.

He blames self-ignorance and outside influence.

His project aims to capture more than 10 dialects from the area.

The dictionary will have words in English, their Tok Pisin translation and the Foe translation.

He says the English and Tok Pisin version has already been completed.

Farabo has been assigned an office space at the recently launched Kutubu Skills Training Center’s administration building.

And interestingly, the future of their existence lies with the children of this generation.

April Hope, a Language Surveyor with Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) PNG says teaching children tokples (mother tongue) will go a long way towards preserving this country's diverse languages and cultures.

“Children are amazing language-learners, and it will be much easier for them to learn to speak their tokples fluently if that's the language their parents speak to them every day in their homes,” she says.