Introduction

Mato is a language spoken on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea, just inside Morobe Province. Situated in the Uruwa River plain at the base of the Saruwaged Mountains, the Mato speakers live in six principal villages and number 1,250.

The language is classified Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Western Oceanic, North New Guinea, Ngero-Vitiaz, Vitiaz, Roinji-Nenaya. The iso code is met. Alternate names for the language are Nenaya, Nengaya, and Nineia. The two dialects, Ramuk and Tabares are mutually intelligible. Dictionary entries are based on the Tabares dialect. Ramuk words are noted when there is variation.

Lexical similarity: 54% with Uma [roe], 29%–32% with Pano [mqz] dialects, 28% with Karnai [bbv], 23% with Arop-Lokep [apr], 20% with Malalamai [mmt] (Stober 2013).

This is a community-reviewed draft of a dictionary which includes four languages: Mato, English, Tok Pisin and Uma. The Mato share clan lines with the adjacent Uma [roe], who inhabit the collection of hamlets called Ronji and Gali located to the west. The Uma language is included here as documentation on it is very thin. The data has been collected over a period of 26 years by Scot Stober, linguist and translator with SIL International, with participation by the Mato and Uma language communities. This draft has been edited as heavily as possible, but there is still much work to be done, especially in the area of sample sentences. A more comprehensive work will be presented when the opportunity for filling the gaps has been attained.