| Awtuw | |
|---|---|
| Region | East Wapei Rural LLG, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea |
| Native speakers | 700 (2014) |
| Language family | Sepik
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kmn |
| Glottolog | awtu1239 |
| ELP | Awtuw |
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Awtuw (Autu), also known as Kamnum, is spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It is a polysynthetic language closely related to Karawa and Pouye. It is spoken in Galkutua, Gutaiya (3°33′56″S 142°00′06″E / 3.565508°S 142.001655°E / -3.565508; 142.001655 (Gutaiya)), Kamnom (3°33′09″S 141°59′39″E / 3.552454°S 141.994165°E / -3.552454; 141.994165 (Kamnom)), Tubum (3°34′03″S 142°00′13″E / 3.567408°S 142.003722°E / -3.567408; 142.003722 (Tubum)), and Wiup (3°33′14″S 141°59′04″E / 3.553766°S 141.9845°E / -3.553766; 141.9845 (Wiup)) villages in Kamnom East ward, East Wapei Rural LLG, Sandaun Province.
It is an endangered language, being widely replaced by Tok Pisin.
Phonology
Awtuw consonants are:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |
| Plosive | p | t | k | |
| Rhotic | r | ɻ | ||
| Lateral | l | |||
| Semivowel | w | j |
Awtuw vowels are:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | ə | o |
| Near-open | æ | ||
| Open | a |
Pronouns
Pronouns are:
sg du pl 1 wan nan nom 2 yen an om 3m rey ræw rom 3f tey
Verbal morphology
Awtuw has a very rich verbal morphology, with 8 prefixal slots encoding tense, aspect, modality, polarity, subject number and reciprocal.). Six of these slots contain prefixes that have cognates in Pouye.
The suffixal chain contains recently grammaticalized suffixes encoding associated motion, aspect, benefactive, and various unusual categories such as celerative -imya 'quickly' as in (1) (grammaticalized from the verb imya 'run'), simulative -panya 'pretend',and periodic tense (adauroral -alw 'until dawn').
(1)Rey
3sg:MASC
aeye
food
rokr’-imy’-e.
cook-CELER-PST
Rey aeye rokr’-imy’-e.
3sg:MASC food cook-CELER-PST
'He cooked the food quickly.' (Feldman 1983: 122–123)
References
- ^ Awtuw at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- ^ Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- Feldman, Harry (1983). A grammar of Awtuw (PhD thesis). Australian National University. doi:10.25911/5D723CE831842. hdl:1885/132945.
- Jacques, Guillaume (2024). "Essai de comparaison de la morphologie verbale des langues ram (awtuw et pouye), famille sepik". Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris. 118 (1): 275–288. doi:10.2143/BSL.118.1.3292785.
- Jacques, Guillaume (2024). "Celerative: the encoding of speed in verbal morphology". STUF. 77 (2): 261–282. doi:10.1515/stuf-2024-2006.
- Jacques, Guillaume (2023). "Simulative derivations in cross-linguistic perspective and their diachronic sources". Studies in Language. 47 (4): 957–988. doi:10.1075/sl.22054.jac.
- Jacques, Guillaume (2023). "Periodic tense markers in the world's languages and their sources". Folia Linguistica. 57 (3): 539–562. doi:10.1515/flin-2023-2013.
- Feldman, Harry (1983). A grammar of Awtuw (PhD thesis). Australian National University. doi:10.25911/5D723CE831842. hdl:1885/132945.
- Feldman, Harry (1986). A Grammar of Awtuw. Pacific Linguistics Series B - No. 94. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/pl-b94. hdl:1885/145411. ISBN 0-85883-342-5.
- Whitehead, Carl R. 1992. Review of: a grammar of Awtuw, by Harry Feldman.
- Rosetta Project:Awtuw Swadesh List
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