Melpa language

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Melpa
Spoken in	Mount Hagen District, Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea
Total speakers	130,000
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Chimbu-Wahgi Hagen Melpa
Writing system	Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	paa
ISO 639-3	med
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Melpa (also written Medlpa) is a Papuan language spoken by about 130,000 people predominantly in Mount Hagen and the surrounding district of Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.

It is notable for its binary counting system.

Decimal Medlpa Interpretation

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1      tenda              "one"             
2      ragl               "two"             
3      ragltika           "twone"           
4      tembokak           "four"            
5      pömp tsi gudl      "one past four"   
6      pömp ragl gudl     "two past four"   
7      pömp ragltika gudl "twone past four" 
8      engak              "eight"           
9      pömp tsi pip       "one past eight"  

[edit] External links

• Ethnologue report for language code:med
• Melpa laterals