Piawi languages
| Piawi | |
|---|---|
| Schraeder Range Waibuk | |
| Geographic distribution | Schraeder Range, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | Madang – Upper Yuat
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | piaw1238 |
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:
- Piawi family: Pinai-Hagahai, Haruai (Waibuk)
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" | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pPiawi | *ni-ga | *na-ga | *nu-ga | *(n)ane-ga-li(mi) | *ni-ga-li(mi) | *ane-ga, *nane-ga | *ni-ga |
| pRamu | *aŋko, *ni | *un, *nu | *man | *a-ŋk-a | *(n)o-ŋk-oa | *a-ni, *na-ni | *u-ni, *nu-ni |
| Arafundi | ɲiŋ | nan | nda | aci | niɲi | aŋ | nuŋ |
| pN 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.
See also
References
- ^ 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.
- ^ NewGuineaWorld Arafundi and Upper Yuat Rivers
- Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.