Massep language

Massep
Wotaf
Spoken in	Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	< 50
Language family	unclassified (possible language isolate)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mvs

Massep (Masep, Potafa, Wotaf) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by under 50 people in a single village. Despite the small number of speakers, however, language use is vigorous. Donohue et al. (2002) conclude that it is definitely not a Kwerba language, as it had been classified by Wurm (1975), and they did not notice connections to any other language family. Ethnologue (2009) thus considers it a language isolate, but it has not been included in wider surveys such as Ross (2005). The pronouns are not dissimilar from those Trans–New Guinea languages, but Massep is geographically distant from that family.

References

• Clouse, Duane, Mark Donohue and Felix Ma. 2002. "Survey report of the north coast of Irian Jaya."[1]