Paamese, or Paama, is the language of the island of Paama in Northern Vanuatu. There is no indigenous term for the language; however linguists have adopted the term Paamese to refer to it. Both a grammar and a dictionary of Paamese have been produced by Terry Crowley.

Paamese is an Austronesian language of Vanuatu. It is most closely related to the language of Southeastern Ambrym. The two languages, while sharing 60-70% of the lexical cognate, are not mutually intelligible.

Paama itself is a small island in the Malampa Province. The island is no more than 5 km (3 mi) wide and 8 km (5 mi) long. There is no running water on the island except after heavy storms.

In the 1999 census in Vanuatu, 7,000 people identified as Paamese, with 2,000 on the island itself and others through the urban hubs of Vanuatu, particularly Port Vila.

Paamese spoken in different parts of the island (and then those on other islands) does differ slightly phonologically and morphologically but not enough to determine definite 'dialects splits'. Even in the extreme north and extreme south, places with the biggest difference, both groups can still communicate fully. There is no question of mutual intelligibility being impaired.

Stress is phonologically distinctive in Paamese. Syllable structure is CV(C) in the casual form, arising from final vowel loss from the more careful form.

There is a Paamese orthography which has been in use for over 75 years which accurately represents almost all of the consonant phonemes. The only point of difference is the labial fricative, which, although voiceless in most environments, is written ⟨v⟩. The velar nasal is written with the digraph ⟨ng⟩. A long vowel is written with a macron over the vowel: ⟨ā, ē, ī, ō, ū⟩.

In Paamese nominals can occur in four environments: