The language of Kala is spoken in six villages located along the shoreline of the Huon Gulf in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Within these six villages, there are four distinct dialects of Kala. In 2006, due to concern about language shift in their communities, Kala speaking community members developed the Kala Language Committee. This committee consists of three individuals from each of the six Kala speaking villages and their goals are to raise awareness about Kala language shift and to develop more Kala usage in their communities, specifically within Kala language elementary schools. The main activities in this research project have been a phonological analysis and the development of a Kala alphabet, known as the Kala Biŋatuwã, as well as developing more Kala books including the first Kala dictionary.
Christine Schreyer, PhD 