Siar

Siar is an Oceanic language of the southern tip of New Ireland, whose speakers call their tongue ep warwar anun dat, meaning 'our language'. It belongs to the Patpatar-Tolai group of the Meso-Melanesian linkage, a cluster of closely related Austronesian speech covering southern New Ireland and nearby islands.

The group includes Patpatar on the east coast, Kandas along the south-western coast, and Tangga on the Tanga and Feni islands, whose varieties are so divergent that their speakers treat them as distinct languages while recalling a common migration. Across Saint George's Channel the same linkage includes Tolai on New Britain.

Siar villagers live by fishing and gardening in a region first settled by Lapita seafarers; European contact began when Dutch explorers charted New Ireland in 1616, and whaling ships were calling along the coast by the 1790s.