Laua, also known as Labu, is a native language of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

. It is spoken in the Central Province, north and west of Laua according to Ethnologue. Laua now has only one remaining speaker as of 1987, making it nearly extinct

Endangered language

An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....

. There is little hope of recovering Laua since only one elder speaker remains. The last speaker was registered in 2000. Laua may even be extinct

Extinct language

An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...

. It is classified as Trans-New Guinea, Southeast Papuan, Mailuan

Mailuan languages

The Mailuan languages are a small family of Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in the "Bird's Tail" of New Guinea. They are sometimes included in a speculative Southeast Papuan branch of Trans–New Guinea , but the Southeast Papuan families have not been shown to be any more closely...

. Note that it is not the same thing as the Labu language

Labu language

Labu is an Austronesian language spoken by about 1,600 people in three older villages and one new one across the Markham River from Lae in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea....

 of Morobe Province

Morobe Province

Morobe Province is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital, and largest city, is Lae. The province covers 34,500 km², including 719 km² maritime area, with a population of 539,725...

.