Usku language
Encyclopedia
Usku, or Afra, is a nearly extinct
and poorly documented Papuan language
spoken by about 20 people, mostly adults, in Usku village, Papua
, Indonesia
. Wurm (1975) placed it as an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea, but Ross
(2005) could not find enough evidence to classify it.
Language death
In linguistics, language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that speakers possess of a given language variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native and/or fluent speakers of the variety...
and poorly documented Papuan language
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. The term does not presuppose a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.-The...
spoken by about 20 people, mostly adults, in Usku village, Papua
Papua (Indonesian province)
Papua comprises most of the western half of the island of New Guinea and nearby islands. Its capital is Jayapura. It's the largest and easternmost province of Indonesia. The province originally covered the entire western half of New Guinea...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. Wurm (1975) placed it as an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea, but Ross
Malcolm Ross
Malcolm David Ross is a linguist and professor at the Australian National University. He has published work on Austronesian and Papuan languages, historical linguistics, and language contact.-External links:**...
(2005) could not find enough evidence to classify it.