Geographic Distribution
As of 2005, Ethnologue lists Taba as having a speaking population of approximately 20,000, however, it has been argued by Linguists that this number could in reality be anywhere between 20,000 and 50,000. The language is predominantly spoken in Eastern Makian Island, although it is also found on Southern Mori Island, Kayoa islands, Bacan and Obi island and along the west coast of south Halmahera. There has also been continued migration of speakers to North Maluku due to frequent volcanic eruptions on Makian island. The island itself is home to two languages: Taba, which is spoken on the eastern side of the island, and a Papuan language spoken on the western side, known alternatively as West Makian or Makian Luar (outer Makian); in Taba, this language is known as Taba Lik ("Outer Taba"), while its native speakers know it as Moi.
Read more about this topic: Taba Language
Famous quotes containing the word distribution:
“The man who pretends that the distribution of income in this country reflects the distribution of ability or character is an ignoramus. The man who says that it could by any possible political device be made to do so is an unpractical visionary. But the man who says that it ought to do so is something worse than an ignoramous and more disastrous than a visionary: he is, in the profoundest Scriptural sense of the word, a fool.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)