Gapun is a village in Marienberg Rural LLG, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, located near the mouth of the Sepik River. The language isolateTayap is traditionally spoken in Gapun by the Tayap people. Gapun village is the sole Tayap settlement, while all other neighboring villages are inhabited by non-related ethnic groups.[1] The sociolinguistic history of the village has been presented in textbooks as a case study on how and why language shift and language death occur.[2]
The village is located about 10 kilometers from the coast with an estimated a population of 110 in 1992.[4]
Languages
Tok Pisin is now the primary language spoken in Gapun, but Tayap was historically the primary language spoken within the village.
Gapun is the only village where Tayap, a language isolate, is spoken. Gapun is currently undergoing a language shift from Tayap to Tok Pisin, since the Tayap people associate Tok Pisin with Christianity and modernity, while they associate their own traditional language with paganism and "backwardness."[5] Further contributing to the decline of Tayap is the fact that it is not spoken in any other neighboring villages, as Gapun is surrounded by Lower Sepik-Ramu languages such as Kopar, Watam, and especially Adjora.[1]: 202
^ abcFoley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.
^Kulick, Don (2019). A Death in the Rainforest: How a Language and a Way of Life Came to an End in Papua New Guinea. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books. ISBN9781616209049.
^Kulick, Don (1992). Language shift and cultural reproduction: socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua New Guinean village. Cambridge England New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN9780521414845.