Sentani

Sentani [set] is a Papuan language spoken by the indigenous community that lives scattered Sentani Lake. Apart from the current younger generation, Sentani is still used by almost all people in the community, therefore the speakers are in vigorous use (Eberhard et al., 2025). Sentani is also known as Buyaka, which means clean water in this language. Sentani belongs to the Sentanic family, specifically Nuclear Sentanic. This language consists of three dialects, involving Central, East, and West Sentani (Hammarström et al., 2024). To keep the vitality of this language, the government and community have required Sentani language as a compulsory subject at certain primary schools around Sentani Lake. Besides, numerous revival initiatives, such as the creation of dictionaries and educational materials for the younger generation, have been undertaken to enhance the use of Sentani. 

A scenery of Sentani lake from the top of Tungkuwiri hill (Photo by Wira Kafryawan, April 27 2026)

Sentani speakers sustain their livelihoods primarily through traditional practices such as cultivating sago and catching freshwater fish in Sentani Lake. Several clans encompassing Tokoro, Wally, Yom, Sokoy, and Depondoye live in Yoboi village, while other clans such as Felle, Ebalkoi, Doyapo Bakeho, and Doyapo Punggauw, live in Atabar and other villages. According to Mahfud (2010), Sentani tribe has three types of traditional houses, Kombo (a male house, pyramid-shaped), Obee (a tribal hall, rectangular-shaped with a gable roof), and Khogo (residential house, rectangular-shaped with a closed roof element). In the past, Sentani tribe usually wore tattoos on the face, hands, and feet. Tattoos are symbols of power, beauty, and social status in society. The type of tattoo varies depending on social status.

Words commonly used on everyday occasions in Sentani language include, in numbers, for instance mbai for one, bhe for two, name for three, and kheli for four. Pronouns are generally lexicalized as reyea for I and weyae for you (singular), whereas colors are specified as haisai for red, yanggo for yellow, and keleumang for white. Other words, such as ana for mother, fafa for children, kha for fish, yokhu for dog, ijokho for eye, bhu for water, hikoi for swim, wi for river, and so forth, are generally used in Central, East, and West Sentani dialects as well. Moreover, several distinct sounds in their speech appear in the conversation, for example, both /æ/ in the vowel and /β/ and /ɣ/ in the consonant sounds. A noun phrase can be either a modifier preceded by a head or vice versa, for example, o fi for sago palm. Word order in Sentani is constructed by SOV, reyea yokhu erei for I see the dog as an instance of a simple sentence (Clemens, 2021).

References

Clemens, M. (2021). A grammar sketch of Sentani. Universiteit Leiden.

Eberhard, D. M., Simon, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. (Eds.). (2025). Ethnologue: Language of the world (28th ed.). SIL International. https://www.ethnologue.com

Hammarström, H., Forkel, R., Haspelmath, M., & Bank, S. (2024). Glottolog 5.1. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. http://glottolog.org

Mahfud, M. I. (2010). Arsitektur rumah tadisional Sentani Papua. Direktorat Tradisi, Direktorat Jenderal Nilai Budaya, Seni, dan Film. Kementerian Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata.