Telefol dictionary

Abstract

The Telefol language belongs to the Ok Family in the Central and South New Guinea Sto ck ( Alan Hea ley 1964b , Wurm 196 5, McElhanon and Voorhoeve 1970) , and is spoken by about 4500 people in the vicinity of Telefomin , West Sepik Province , Papua New Guinea. It has two m ain dialects: Southern , spoken by the Feramin (Falamiin) group of about 1000 speakers, and Northern , spoken by the group of people loo sely c al led Telefolmiin (including the people of t he Tele fomin, E liptamin (Iliptam an) , and Ninatam an valleys) . Each of the se two m ain dialects has smaller diale ctal variations wit hin it , b ased mainly on distinctions between the speech of different pari she s. This dictionary is mainly of the dialect spoken by the Kialikmin (Kayalikmiin) pari sh of the Northern dialect , and only a few words from other dialects have been added. Those from the Southern (Feramin) dialect are always identified.