Waima

Waima is an Oceanic language of the West Central Papuan Tip group, spoken around Kairuku and Yule Island northwest of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. It is the language of the Roro people and has three close dialects, Waima, Roro and Paitana; Roro is sometimes used as the name of the whole language.

Together with its neighbours Kuni, Mekeo and Motu, it belongs to the Austronesian speech communities founded on New Guinea's southern coast by seagoing settlers. Its coastal villages took part in the hiri, Motu-led trading voyages in which clay pots were carried west and exchanged for sago and canoe logs.

In 1606 the Spanish expedition of Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through the strait south of New Guinea, and European ships later passed these waters, yet the Roro coast long remained little touched by the outside world.