Koiari

Koiari, also called Koiali or Grass Koiari, is a Papuan language of southeastern New Guinea, spoken in the hinterland of Port Moresby and along the Hunter and Musgrave rivers. It belongs to the Koiarian family, a small group within the Southeast Papuan branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages, spread across the Bird's Tail peninsula.

The family divides into a Koiaric branch and a Baraic branch on the Managalas Plateau. Koiari itself has western and eastern dialect groups that differ only in minor points of phonology and vocabulary, and its speakers live interspersed with Motu and Koita villages near the harbour of Port Moresby.

The Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez gave New Guinea its name in 1545, yet for centuries afterward outsiders knew only its coasts, and the Koiari-speaking hinterland remained little affected by the outside world.