Biak

Biak, called wós Vyak by its speakers, is an Austronesian language of the South Halmahera-West New Guinea branch, spoken on Biak, Supiori and Numfor and the smaller Schouten Islands in Cenderawasih Bay, off the northern coast of New Guinea. Its name derives from that of Biak island, and its dialects differ only in minor sound changes.

The Biak were skilled seafarers: oral tradition recalls the war leader Gurabesi and ties with the Sultanate of Tidore in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and the Portuguese navigator Jorge de Menezes reached the islands in 1526.

From the early eighteenth century Biak settlers founded coastal villages along the Bird's Head Peninsula, and their language gave such place names as Manokwari, Doberai and Bomberai. Biak traders carried the language across Cenderawasih Bay as intermediaries between inland Papuans and Moluccan and other merchants.