Nalca

Nalca is a Trans-New Guinea Mek-family language of the central Highlands of Papua, Indonesia, spoken by ~10,000 people in the Yahukimo Regency. The Mek family (Eipo, Yale, Una, Nalca, Mek, etc. — ~12 languages, ~50,000 total speakers) is one of the smaller Trans-New Guinea subgroups, occupying the Star Mountains and the western Eastern Highlands. Linguistically, Nalca shares Mek-family features with classical Trans-New Guinea typology: SOV constituent order, postpositions, complex verb morphology with hierarchical agreement, and noun classifiers. SIL Bible translation work since the 1990s has produced literacy materials in Nalca; the Mek-family Eipo Bible (1992) was a notable Mek-family Bible translation project.