Melanesian History and Culture: Tradition, People and Migration, Tourism Information

Melanesian History and Culture. Tradition, People and Migration. A Book on Melanesia History and Culture, travel and tourism. The cultural variation in Melanesia, particularly in Papua New Guinea, is unique in the history of human societies. Residents of Papua New Guinea, who number nearly 4 million today, speak one-quarter of the world's languages, around 800 distinct tongues. Many of these languages are spoken by fewer than 1,000 people and many are in danger of disappearing altogether with the spread of two common languages, English and New Guinea Tok Pisin. Fortunately, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, an adjunct to the country's Christian missions, has done a great deal of linguistic work in Papua New Guinea. For more than 30 years, the Institute has documented grammars and lexicons of New Guinea dialects