Ulwa (East Sepik, Papua New Guinea)

Language materials from the Ulwa [yla] language of East Sepik, Papua New Guinea, recorded by Russell Barlow.

This collection contains 44 audio recordings of Ulwa [yla], a Keram language of the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. The recordings were made between June and August of 2015, mostly in Manu village (and thus reflect the Manu dialect of Ulwa). Seven of the recordings, however, represent the Maruat-Dimiri-Yaul dialect of Ulwa, as they were made in that cluster of three villages: Yaul (RXB1-007, RXB1-008), Dimiri (RXB1-009, RXB1-010), and Maruat (RXB1-011, RXB1-012, RXB1-013). Most of the recordings are of individual Ulwa speakers telling traditional or autobiographical stories. Additionally, there are two procedural texts (RXB1-015, RXB1-028), three conversations (RXB1-003, RXB1-034, RXB1-035), and thirteen songs (RXB1-008, RXB1-010, RXB1-012, RXB1-013, RXB1-018, RXB1-019, RXB1-020, RXB1-021, RXB1-022, RXB1-023, RXB1-030, RXB1-038, the end of RXB1-044).

These recordings were made as part of a pilot research project to document and describe the Ulwa language, which was generously funded by a grant from the Bilinski Educational Foundation. Subsequent research has resulted in additional recordings archived with the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) (https://www.elararchive.org/dk0452/) and a dissertation reference grammar of the language (https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/62506).