Abau language
Papuan language of Papua New Guinea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abau is a Papuan language spoken in southern Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea, primarily along the border with Indonesia.
| Abau | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Sandaun Province |
Native speakers | 7,500 (2008 census)[1] |
Sepik
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | aau |
| Glottolog | abau1245 |
| ELP | Abau |
In 2002, there were estimated to be between 4,500 and 5,000 speakers, and this number does not appear to have declined since the first accurate count in the 1970s.
Abau is reported to have whistled speech.[citation needed]
Phonology
Pronouns
Pronouns are:[3]
Singular Dual Plural First ha ~ han hror hrom Second hwon ~ hun hoh hom Third Masculine hiy ~ hi Feminine hok
The dual and plural numbers only distinguish between first person and non-first person. Also, the third-person gender distinction exists only for the singular, but not the dual or plural forms.
Noun classes
Abau noun classes are:[3]
Abau noun classes class formal marker semantics class 1 pru human, spirits class 2 k(a)- animals and default class 3 na small objects with some volume class 4 s(i)- flat surface objects class 5 pi long thin objects class 6 u geographical locations class 7 i flat objects with little volume class 8 ri certain types of trees class 9 ein(d)- bundles of long uncut items class 10 reik temporal class 11 hnaw bundles of long cut items class 12 houk- part of a long object
Nouns can take on different class affixes depending on the physical characteristics being emphasized. Examples:[3]
- su ‘coconut’
- su pi-ron /coconut class.5-one/ ‘a coconut palm’
- su ka-mon /coconut class.2-one/ ‘a coconut’
- pey ‘sugarcane’
- pey pi-ron /sugarcane class.5-one/ ‘one stalk of uncut sugarcane’
- pey houk-mon /sugarcane class.12-one/ ‘one piece of sugarcane’
- pey eind-mon /sugarcane class.9-one/ ‘bundle of stored stalks of sugarcane’
- pey hnaw-mon /sugarcane class.11-one/ ‘one bundle of sugarcane ready for transport’
Like most other Sepik languages, Abau overtly marks grammatical gender (see Sepik languages#Gender). The same object can be classified as either masculine or feminine, depending on the physical characteristics intended for emphasis. Example:[3]
- youk ‘paddle’
- youk se ‘paddle M.DAT’ (focuses on the length of the paddle)
- youk ke ‘paddle F.DAT’ (focuses on the flat nature of the two-dimensional paddle blade)
Verbal morphology
Abau had three periodic tense suffixes: diurnal -kok, postmeridial -ropay and nocturnal -nayr[4]
Vocabulary
The following basic vocabulary words are from Foley (2005)[5] and Laycock (1968),[6] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[7]
gloss Abau head makwe ear nwek eye nane; nanɛ nose kasan tooth nas tongue sane; sanɛ leg sune; sunɛ louse mapru dog nwɔf; nwɔhɔ pig fwok bird ahnɛ egg ne blood nyoh bone ayo; i skin ohi breast mu tree no; nɔw man lu; or; ur woman sa sun e; ey moon yen; yeny water fu; hu fire ya stone məny name uru eat ra one mun; rin two pris
