Kiwai language explained

Kiwai
States:	Papua New Guinea
Region:	Western Province, Fly River delta, Torres Strait Islands
Speakers:	ca. 30,000
Date:	2011
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Papuan
Fam1:	Kiwaian
Lc1:	kiw
Ld1:	Northeast Kiwai
Lc2:	kjd
Ld2:	Southern Kiwai
Dia1:	Doumori
Dia2:	Coast Kiwai
Dia3:	Southern Coast Kiwai
Dia4:	Daru Kiwai
Dia5:	Eastern Kiwai
Dia6:	Island Kiwai
Dia7:	Gibaio
Dia8:	Kope (Gope, Era River)
Dia9:	Urama
Dia10:	Arigibi (Anigibi)
Glotto:	nort2930
Glottoname:	Northeast
Glottorefname:	Northeast Kiwai
Glotto2:	sout2949
Glottoname2:	Southern
Glottorefname2:	Southern Kiwai

Kiwai is a Papuan language, or languages, of southern Papua New Guinea. Dialects number 1,300 Kope, 700 Gibaio, 1,700 Urama, 700 Arigibi (together "Northeast Kiwai"), 3,800 Coast, 1,000 Daru, 4,500 Island, 400 Doumori (together "Southern Kiwai"). Wurm and Hattori (1981) classify Arigibi as a separate language.

Introduction

Kiwai Island is a long/low island located on the Eastern side of the Southern entrance to the delta of the Fly River (Papua).

Gender

Kiwai is gender free; male and female is shown by specific terms when needed.

Alphabet

• 17 Letters
  • vowels: a, e, i, o, u (diphthongs are combinations of any two vowels, e.g. ai, au, oi, ou, ei, etc.)
  • Consonants: k, g, t, s, d, n, r, p, b, m, v, h
  • Semivowel: w/u, i/y /j/

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Plosive	voiceless	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
	voiced	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Fricative		(pronounced as /link/)	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Rhotic			pronounced as /link/
Approximant		pronounced as /link/	(pronounced as /link/)

/m/ can have allophones of [v, β] when in intervocalic positions.^[1]

[l] can be heard interchangeably with /ɾ/ in some dialects.^[2]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Mid	pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Low		pronounced as /link/

/ɛ/ may also range to [e].^[3]

Parts of speech

Parts of speech are associated with the standard European parts of speech, somewhat inelegantly. The three major parts of speech are Nominals, Verbs and Particles:

Nominals

1. Nouns, Adjectives, Pronouns (Personal and Relative), Interrogative words, Nominal adverbs, Numerals

Nominals are declined for case (including the ergative).

Verbs

1. Verbs

Particles

1. Interrogative particles, Particle Adverbs, Postpositions, Interjections, Particle Conjunctions

Nouns

While most nouns in Kiwai are mono-morphemic, many are derived or compounds, such as verbal nouns, nominalised adjectives, attribute-category compounds, and so on. Reduplication also exists, usually creating an intensification of the core meaning, distributive effect, and so on.

Derivation is by prefixing and/or suffixing. For example, verbal nouns are created by prefixing k- to the verb word-base.

Adjectives

Like all other languages in the Torres Strait area as well as Torres Strait Creole, adjectives precede nouns. Various derived adjectives exist, such as Verbal Adjectives, Proprietive, Negative, Similative, and Assertative.

Interrogatives can be created using the Interrogative Prefix.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns indicate person and number (singular, dual, plural, trial), do not indicate gender, and are declined for case, including the ergative and genitive. The 1st person non-singular, unlike other languages in the area, does not distinguish inclusive and exclusive.

Verbs

Verbs are highly complex, consisting of a "verbal word-base" and various prefixes and suffixes, marking for tense, aspect, mood and cross-marking for subject and object. Verbal Word-Bases always begin and end with a vowel or a diphthong. It is the simplest form of a verb that is used in speech forms.

Syntax

Syntax is the arrangement of words in order to create a well-structured sentence. For the Kiwai language, there are principal rules for the positioning of words.

1. The subject precedes verb/predicate
2. The D.O (direct object) precedes the verb, which then follows the subject
3. The word that modifies the subject/object precedes
4. Numerals precede nouns
5. Sometimes the extensions of the predicate precede the verb
6. If time is involved, the indications of time will normally appear at the beginning of a sentence
7. Infinitive phrases will appear at the end of sentences
8. Particles will precede the verb

Number

• • Number can be indicated by verbal suffixes
  • Most nouns do not mark for number (few nouns have a separate plural form)

Dialects

There are six main dialects of this language.

1. Mawata-Daru-Tureture Kiwai
2. Southern Kiwai
   1. from Parema north on the and neighbouring islands, includsing Kiwai Island.
   2. Adopted as the standard language for mission purposes in the Delta (by the London Missionary Society)
3. Domori
   1. an island in the Fly Delta northwest of Kiwai
4. Wabuda
   1. an island between the Eastern mouth of the Fly and Bamu Delta
5. Sisiami
   1. Village on the Dibiri branch of the Bamu Delta
6. Goaribari
   1. Mouth of the Bamu Delta

While Kiwai dialects differ in terms of vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, differences are minor.

Vocabulary – Kiwai And English

E. Baxter Riley, had collected words to be added in the Kiwai-English vocabulary. A lot of the texts and translations have been modified and added by S.H.R.

Verbal Forms: Verbs will be placed under the simple form of the word-base, under the five vowels (a,e,i,o,u). Compounds are followed immediately after. However some of the compounds will be located only under some prefixes. These prefixes being: ar, em, emar, emow, er, erem, im, imar, imow, ir, irim, iriw, irow, iw, iwar, or, oror, ow, owar, and owor. The word-base, will then be located by ignoring the following initial letters/syllables in words.

Evolution

Below are some reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea proposed by Pawley (2012). The dialect given is Island Kiwai, unless otherwise indicated.^[4]

	Kiwai (Island)
tukumba[C] ‘short’	(?) kopu
takVn[V] ‘moon’	sagana
sumbu ‘white ashes’	tuwo
pi(n,nd)a ‘sister’	abida
niman ‘louse’	nimo
ni ‘1PL’	ni(mo)
mbena ‘arm’	(Kerewo Kiwai bena ‘shoulder’)
mb(i,u)t(i,u)C ‘fingernail’	pitu
maŋgat[a] ‘teeth, mouth’	mangota, magata
m(i,u)ndu ‘nose’	wodi (Gope (N.E. Kiwai) modi)
kV(mb,p)(i,u)t(i,u) ‘head’	epuru, (Wabuda kepuru)
kuk(a,u)m(o,u) ‘cold’	(Bamu kukamu, Sisiame kukamo)
ka(nd,t)(e,i)kV ‘ear’	gare
k(a,o]ndok[V] ‘foot’	Gope (N.E. Kiwai) oto, Morigi kota
inja ‘tree, wood, fire’	(S. Kiwai era)
amu ‘breast’	amo
a(mb,m)u ‘tail’	(?) wapo
(nd,s)umu(n,t)[V] ‘hair’	(?) muso (metathesis?)

Videos

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_XeP9DxsKU
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB3Co9ggY10
  • 2 hour long film: "The Jesus Film"

Further reading

Urama

• Book: Brown. Jason. Muir. Alex. Craig. Kimberley. Anea. Karika. A Short Grammar of Urama. 2016. Asia-Pacific Linguistics. Canberra. 9781922185228. 1885/111328. free. en.
• Brown. Jason. Peterson. Tyler. Craig. Kimberley. Belief, Evidence, and Interactional Meaning in Urama. Oceanic Linguistics. 2016. 55. 2. 432–448. 10.1353/ol.2016.0020. en. 2292/32312. free.
• Book: Brown, Jason . Phonetic Fieldwork in Southern New Guinea . Muir . Alex . Petterson . Robbie . 2021 . University of Hawai'i Press . 978-0-9979673-2-6 . Lindsey . Kate L. . Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 24 . Honolulu . 120–129 . en . A Phonetic Sketch of Urama . 10125/24997 . Schokkin . Dineke . free.

La Trobe University

• Sidney Ray, A Grammar of the Kiwai Language, Fly Delta, Papua, with a Kiwai Vocabulary (London Missionary Society: Edward George Baker, 1931)

External links

• A number of collections in Paradisec include Southern Kiwai materials

Notes and References

1. Book: Martin, Julia . An acoustic study of Kope, Northeast Kiwai, Papua New Guinea, with preliminary tonal analysis . University of North Dakota . 2016.
2. Book: Wurm, Stephen A. . The Kiwaian Language Family . Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University . 1973 . In Karl J. Franklin (ed.), The Linguistic Situation in the Gulf District and Adjacent Areas, Papua New Guinea . 217-260.
3. Book: Clifton, John . Kiwai Organised Phonology Data . SIL.
4. Pawley . Andrew . Andrew Pawley . 2012 . History, Contact and Classification of Papuan Languages . Language & Linguistics in Melanesia Special Issue 2012: Part I . 0023-1959 . Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea . Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea . Hammarström . Harald . van den Heuvel . Wilco . How reconstructable is proto Trans New Guinea? Problems, progress, prospects . 88–164. 1885/38602 .