Sentani

Print

A language of Indonesia

ISO 639-3
set
Alternate Names
Buyaka
Population

30,000 (1996 SIL), increasing. Few monolinguals.

Location

Papua Province, Lake Sentani area, about 30 villages. Scattered in Papua and other parts of Indonesia.

Language Maps
Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification
East Bird’s Head-Sentani, Sentani, Sentani Proper
Dialects

Central Sentani, East Sentani, West Sentani. Lexical similarity: 30% with Tabla [tnm].

Language Use

Vigorous use in most families. All domains. Positive attitudes. Also use Indonesian [ind].

Language Development
Literacy rate in L1: 16%. Literacy rate in L2: 50%–75%. About 5,000. Schools are beginning to use Sentani grades 1 to 6. Dictionary. Grammar. NT: 1997.
Writing
Latin script.
Other Comments

Ethnic autonym: Buyaka. Traditional religion, Christian.