| Waskia | |
| Region: | Papua New Guinea |
| Speakers: | 20,000 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | Trans–New Guinea? |
| Fam2: | Madang |
| Fam3: | Croisilles |
| Fam4: | Isumrud |
| Fam5: | Kowan |
| Iso3: | wsk |
| Glotto: | wask1241 |
| Glottorefname: | Waskia |
Waskia (Vaskia, Woskia) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea.[1] It is spoken on half of Karkar Island, and a small part of the shore on the mainland, by 20,000 people; language use is vigorous. The Waskia share their island with speakers of Takia, an Oceanic language which has been restructured under the influence of Waskia, which is the inter-community language. Waskia has been documented extensively by Malcolm Ross and is being further researched by Andrew Pick.
Waskia is spoken in Tokain (-4.7156°N 145.634°W), a village in Malas ward, Sumgilbar Rural LLG on the coast of mainland New Guinea, and on Karkar Island, with the island and mainland varieties being lexically divergent from each other.[2] [3]
Below are some Waskia lexical forms compared with Amako and Proto-Northern Adelbert.[4]
| gloss | Waskia | Proto-Northern Adelbert | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| baram | bar |
| ||
| pig | buruk | bur |
| |
| sit | – | beng- |
| |
| year | barat | – |
| |
| skin | guang | – |
| |
| thick | gurum | uŋur |
| |
| liver | gomang | gom |
| |
| turn | gira- | girka- |
| |
| – | kid |
| ||
| banana | – | kud |
| |
| lime | kaur | ka |
| |
| day, sun | kam | – |
| |
| nape | komang | kumandup |
| |
| plate | tawir | taw |
| |
| LOC | te | te |
| |
| rain | tiwik | tiv |
|
. Malcolm Ross (linguist) . John Natu Paol . 1978 . A Waskia grammar sketch and vocabulary . Canberra . Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University . 978-0-85883-174-2 . 4524381 . registration .