Stanley Stanis speaking Enga

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This video was recorded by Stanley in Papua New Guinea. Enga, a member of the Trans-New Guinea language family, is spoken by approximately 230,000 people in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. It has the largest number of speakers of any indigenous language in New Guinea. Occupying the mountainous region ranging for Mount Hagen to Porgera, the Enga people are typically considered to be sedentary gardeners, primarily growing sweet potatoes, as well as coffee and pyrethrum. Pigs, cattle and fowl are also raised in the region. Enga phonology includes five vowels, and the alphabet includes 21 letters. In addition, although they have not been studied in great detail, Enga has multiple noun classes, including different subclasses of animates. With a lack of subordinating or coordinating conjunctions, modal auxiliaries, and prepositions such as ‘for’ or ‘to’, Enga also has incredibly complex verbal morphology.

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