Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 14, 2026

Turumsa language

Turumsa is a possibly extinct Papuan language of Makapa village in Gogodala Rural LLG, Middle Fly District, Papua New Guinea. It has been classified as a Bosavi language, and is 19% lexically similar with Dibiyaso, but this appears to be due to loans. It has a greater (61%) lexical similarity with Doso, its only clear relative.

Last revised
Jul 14, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
177 w
Citations
6
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Turumsa
RegionPapua New Guinea
Native speakers
5 (2002)1
Possibly extinct (2011)1
Papuan Gulf ?
Language codes
ISO 639-3tqm
Glottologturu1250
ELPTurumsa

Turumsa is a possibly extinct Papuan language of Makapa village (7°56′16″S 142°34′34″E / 7.937872°S 142.576135°E / -7.937872; 142.576135 (Makapa)) in Gogodala Rural LLG, Middle Fly District, Papua New Guinea.12 It has been classified as a Bosavi language, and is 19% lexically similar with Dibiyaso, but this appears to be due to loans. It has a greater (61%) lexical similarity with Doso, its only clear relative.3

There were only five elderly speakers found in 2002. Today, most people in Makapa village speak Dibiyaso.4

References

References

  1. Turumsa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forke, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2020). "Turumsa". Glottolog 4.3.
  4. Palmer, Bill (2018). "Language families of the New Guinea Area". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 1–20. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.