Piawi languages explained

Piawi
Also Known As:Schraeder Range
Waibuk
Region:Schraeder Range, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea
Familycolor:Papuan
Fam1:Madang – Upper Yuat
Fam2:Upper Yuat
Glotto:piaw1238
Glottorefname:Piawi
Child1:Hagahai
Child2:Haruai

The Piawi languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken in the Schraeder Range of the Madang Highlands of Papua New Guinea that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They are now connected to the Arafundi and Madang languages.

The name "Piawi" is an acronym of three language varieties: Pinai (Pinaye), Aramo/Aramaue (Hagahai) and Wiyaw (Harway/Waibuk). Pinai and Hagahai are often classified as a single language.

Classification

Piawi consists of only two languages:

Davies and Comrie (1985) noted some pronominal similarities with the Engan languages in Trans–New Guinea, which Ross took into consideration, but no lexical similarities. Comrie believes the family is as isolate. William A. Foley suggested that Piawi and Arafundi may be related (Comrie 1992),[1] and according to Ross a connection with Arafundi or Ramu appears more promising than Engan. Timothy Usher confirms the link to Arafundi.[2]

Pronouns

Below is a comparison of proto-Piawi, proto-Ramu, Arafundi, and proto-North Engan pronouns, per Ross. Initial nasals are ubiquitous, and indeed are very common throughout New Guinea, so they are in themselves not good evidence of a relationship.

"I""thou""s/he""we two""you two""we""you"
p-Piawi
  • ni-ga
  • na-ga
  • nu-ga
  • (n)ane-ga-li(mi)
  • ni-ga-li(mi)
  • ane-ga, *nane-ga
  • ni-ga
p-Ramu
  • aŋko, *ni
  • un, *nu
  • man
  • a-ŋk-a
  • (n)o-ŋk-oa
  • a-ni, *na-ni
  • u-ni, *nu-ni
Arafundiɲiŋnanndaaciniɲinuŋ
p-N Engan
  • na-ba
  • ne-ba
  • -ba
  • na-li-ba
  • ɲa-li-mba
  • na-ni-ma
  • ɲa-ma, *ɲa-ka-ma

Both Engan and Piawi have a dual suffix *li.

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Davies & Comrie (1985),[3] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.[4] The Haruai data is from Tonson (1976).[5]

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. waɲa, wəɲa, wɛɲa for “dog”) or not (e.g. haŋietʰ, nauŋasi, namagə for “nose”).

gloss Pinai-Hagahai
headˈjeʥ̮ᵊˈmat̮ɑ ɩʥ̮ɩboˈʥ̮ɛ idᴶibəˈdᴶə iʥ̮uəˈxə yɛtʸəmatʸ ɩʥ̮ɩˈboʥ̮ɛ
hairjeʥ̮ᵊˈϕan ɩʥ̮ɷmuˈda idᴶimuˈda iˌʥ̮iməˈda yɛntʸəᵽan ɩʥ̮ɷmɷˈda
earɾ̥ɨmɨnt̮ɕ jɛnɷaˈʥ̮ə jənˈwadᴶə jɛnˈwaϕe jɛnuˈaʥ̮ɩ
eyeˈmomakʰ məmɛˈʥ̮i mɛmɛˈdᴶi mɛmɛʥ̮əˈmagə mɛmaŋk mɛmɛˈʥ̮i
nosehaŋiˈetʰ nauˈŋasi namaˈga namaˈgə haŋantʸ namaˈgə
toothandzᵊmakᵡ ad̮ʑuaˈbə adᴶuˈabɤ ˌjɛd̮ʑɩ ˈmagə ad̮ʑuaˈβə
tonguealᵊˈbʌɲ t̮suˈə; t̮suˈɛ suˈwɔ suˈə; syê sjuˈə
legϕaˈletʰ əˈda; həˈda ˌaɤɔjɔˈdu həˈdaməˈsi aˈɽɐd̮ʑə
lousejɩm nəˈma ɭɛˈma iˈmɤd̮ʑi yɩm
dogwaɲa wəˈɲa; wɛˈɲa wəˈɲa wɛˈɲa wañə wɛˈɲa
pighan jɛˈnə jɛˈnɤ jɛˈnɤ han jɛˈnə
birdˈjaʷər jauˈr̥ɷ; jauˈtʰɷ jauˈt͑u jauˈthə yawʌř jauˈr̥u; jauˈthu
eggjaur mɩntɕ ˈjautʰumuˈsi jauˈt͑umuˈsi məntʸ
bloodhaɲ geˈja aˈt͑aɤi gaˈja
bonejantʰ joˈdu jɔˈdu jɛˈdə
skinjɩmaɤ wɨɲ ɽəˈxa ɭIˈk͑a wɩˈɲi wəñ Iˈda
breastkau aˈu aˈu aˈhu
treeməˈna muˈna mɤˈna
manˈnabʌ naˈba naˈba naˈba nʌmbə woˈdu
womanjaˈma jəˈma məˈgə mʌg jamˈwa
sunnaijʌ ɽəˈma nuˈma ɽəˈma naiyə
moonr̥̃ʌn tsoxɷˈno sɔkᵡɷˈnə sɔˈkɷnə hřawən
waterɾ̥aˈbʌ hřʌmbə
fireɾ̥ᵼn ɲabɯ; ɲabu ɲaˈbu ɲaˈbɤ hřən ᵽin
stoneɾ̥ɩgɨ ɽɩˈgə ɭɨˈgə ɽɩˈgə hřəŋk ɽɩˈgə
road, pathganɨmϕ ˈsaba ʥɩmur̥əmam ˈdᴶɩmɷtʰɩ ˈdiədə anəmbi
namehʌmpʰ mɛˈi aˈt̮ɕaβəde nabamɩˈhe yɩmpʰ
eatnɨmˈda jaˈd̮ʑi ja⋅ˈdᴶɩmɩnə ˌmoməˈdɛɽə
onewaɲɩŋˈgeϕ joɽoˈdə ˈjɔ⋅ɤɔdə aˈgə paŋɛmp
twojɩˈmag ˈjɩŋgʷʌ janˈdɛɽimi ˈjadaɤɩn ˌhəgəˈnaβəmaˈɨ mʌs

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Comrie, Bernard. "The recognition of the Piawi language family." In Tom Dutton, Malcolm Ross and Darrell Tryon, eds. The language game: Papers in memory of Donald C. Laycock. 111-113. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1992.
  2. https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/arafundi-and-upper-yuat-rivers NewGuineaWorld Arafundi and Upper Yuat Rivers
  3. Davies, J. and Comrie, B. "A linguistic survey of the Upper Yuat". In Adams, K., Lauck, L., Miedema, J., Welling, F., Stokhof, W., Flassy, D., Oguri, H., Collier, K., Gregerson, K., Phinnemore, T., Scorza, D., Davies, J., Comrie, B. and Abbott, S. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 22. A-63:275-312. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1985.
  4. Web site: TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea . Greenhill . Simon . 2016 . 2020-11-05.
  5. Tonson, J. 1976. The languages in the Schraeder ranges. Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages 16. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Pp. 91-112.