Manat is spoken by about fifty people in two villages, Paynamar and Simbevi. All its speakers are over forty years old, making the language highly endangered. Children are learning Tok Pisin instead. Manat belongs to the Sogeram family, which is part of the Madang branch of the Trans New Guinea family.
I first met some Manat speakers in 2006, in the Nend-speaking village of Akavanku. I did fieldwork in Paynamar in 2010, 2012, and 2014. (This is when I made my estimate that there are fifty speakers, so there may actually be fewer today.) During this time, the community and I recorded and transcribed an hour and a half of Manat speech. We also recorded another 50 minutes that we didn't have time to transcribe. I worked with a lot of people, but Daniel Askai, the local councillor, made a lot of the recordings, and his brother Mark Askai helped me the most with transcription.
I first met some Manat speakers in 2006, in the Nend-speaking village of Akavanku. I did fieldwork in Paynamar in 2010, 2012, and 2014. (This is when I made my estimate that there are fifty speakers, so there may actually be fewer today.) During this time, the community and I recorded and transcribed an hour and a half of Manat speech. We also recorded another 50 minutes that we didn't have time to transcribe. I worked with a lot of people, but Daniel Askai, the local councillor, made a lot of the recordings, and his brother Mark Askai helped me the most with transcription.
Below is a video of three speakers -- Matthew Barakam, Sara Barakam, and Reuben Wetapi -- doing a picture-sorting activity that I gave them. You can turn on subtitles in Manat, Tok Pisin, or English.