Papua New Guinea: The country with highest number of spoken languages

Unable to exploit their own natural resources, the majority of the country’s citizens still live in rural areas. Subsistence agriculture is practiced by most people in this country. The number of Papua New Guineans living in cities is a considerably low. Almost 90 percent of the population lives outside the cities. Tribal life still survives virtually untouched in the forests and mountainous areas. The literacy rate is low, at around 57.8 percent.

Wantok culture is very widespread in Papua New Guinea. Wantok means single speech or single mouth in the local language, Tok Pisin. In other worlds, it represents a group of people speaking the same language. People speaking the same language are particularly connected to one another. Thus, national identity is replaced by tribal loyalty in this country. Everyone loves his or her own tribe and tries to help the people of his or her tribe. Papua New Guinea is a country where national identity and nationalism are the least developed. A person’s tribe is more important than anything else. Thus, the people of a wantok help each other.

Papua New Guinea has the highest number of spoken languages in the world. There are 820 indigenous languages spoken in this country. The official language is Tok Pisin, or New Guinea Pidgin, and is the most widely spoken language after English, a legacy of the colonial period. The Tok Pisin is a mixture of English and local languages. Many indigenous people speak it. Another official language is Hiri Motu, a language spoken mostly by people in the coastal region.

Capital Port Moresby

The capital of the country is Port Moresby, and it is the most crowded city in the country. Many people have migrated to the capital from rural areas. The unemployment rate throughout the country is considerably high. Crime rates have increased significantly, particularly after 1980. Before the arrival of Europeans, the Motu and Koitabu tribes lived here. During World War II, the city served as a major base in the Pacific. Violent clashes took place between Japanese and US forces here.

Agricultural production is virtually nonexistent in and around the capital. Even tomatoes are imported to Port Moresby. Therefore, they are very expensive. The price of tomatoes is $6 per kilogram in the supermarkets. Although two-thirds of the population of Papua New Guinea is nominally Christian, many also have faith in their old local religions.

One of the most interesting sights in the capital is its marketplace. The Malaora market is particularly famous. You can find everything from dried fish to fresh fish, from kangaroo meat to turtles, from bananas to sweet potatoes, from coconut to papayas, from mangos to pineapples in the market. Tropical fruits and vegetables are common.

The turtle stalls are an interesting part of the market. The stalls selling crabs and mussels are also popular. Crabs are sold live as they are kept in water throughout the day. Mussels also represent a good sell next to the crabs. Dried fish, turtle meat and kangaroo meat are very popular among Papua New Guineans. There are even stalls where small fish are sold for those who get hungry while shopping.

Almost all market vendors use umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun. It can get really hot in the Pacific, especially at noon. The average temperature is 27 degrees Celsius in coastal areas and 20 degrees Celsius in mountainous areas. Therefore, if they do not take the necessary measures, people may suffer serious sunburn.

Creative vendors

The hot air combines with the country’s poverty to give rise to interesting images in the market. You can see some people carrying colorful liquid inside plastic bags. Closer examination reveals that they are carrying fruit juice. Unable to buy fruit juice in plastic bottles, poor people carry their fruit juice in plastic bags so that they can drink it in summer. Frozen fruit juice blocks are also sold in plastic bags to help people beat the heat.

[QUICK FACTS] Capital: Port Moresby Official languages: Tok Pisin, English and Hiri Motu. Government: Constitutional parliamentary democracy and a Commonwealth realm Chief of state: Queen Elizabeth II Prime Minister: Sir Michael Somare Area: 462,840 square kilometers Population: 5,940,775* Gross domestic product (PPP): $13.42 billion** Main religions: Roman Catholic (27 percent), Evangelical Lutheran (19.5 percent), United Church (11.5 percent), Seventh-Day Adventist (10 percent), Pentecostal (8.6 percent)   *July 2009 estimate **2009 estimate

The living conditions are hard in this country. Second-hand clothes from Australia being sold at the stalls are the most obvious indication of this.

There are two TV channels in Papua New Guinea, one state-run and one private. There are two national newspapers papers in the country, The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier and The National. The two papers have a combined circulation of more than 45,000. The media sector cannot be considered very advanced as there are only five radio stations.

There is a unique postal service in place in the country. You will rarely encounter a postman in the streets as there are mailboxes in post offices which people can rent for $25-30 per year. All the mail is left in these mailboxes, and people have to go to the post offices to collect it.

Of the hundreds of indigenous ethnic groups in Papua New Guinea, the largest group is the Papuans, whose ancestors arrived in the region tens of thousands of years ago. Many remote Papuan tribes continue to have marginal contact with the outside world to this day.

It is impossible to imagine Port Moresby without the sea. In this country of islands, there is an interesting island in the shape of a bird. The island’s beaches are clean, and it has a pristine coast. Virtually unknown to tourists, this island is a popular destination for local people seeking relaxation and entertainment. Dotted with coconut and palm trees, you can see the indigenous people gathering coconuts from tall trees here. For the indigenous people, the business of picking coconuts from the highest parts of these tall trees is child’s play.