Introduction

The Tauade people live in the Goilala District of Central province (northeast; Oro province: Sohe district, Kira RLLG) in Papua New Guinea in an area of approximately 500 square kilometers. They live in altitudes ranging from 5,000 to 8,000 feet in the Wharton Range east of Tapini. The population of the Tauade people is estimated to be around 12,000. The name Tauade was borrowed by the Catholic Mission from one of the tribes and is used to refer to the whole language group. The government from the beginning used the name Goilala, which they borrowed from another clan, to refer to the people of this area. Later the name, Goilala was extended to refer to a larger area that includes speakers of Kunimaipa, Fuyuge, and Tauade. But the Tauade people refer to themselves by individual clan names.

The language is classified as: Trans-New Guinea, Southeast Papuan, Goilalan, Kunimaipa. The ISO code is [ttd]. There is 44% lexical similarity with Kunimaipa [kup].