Pyu language (Papuan)

Pyu is a language isolate spoken in Papua New Guinea. As of 2000, the language had about 100 speakers. It is spoken in Biake No. 2 village (4.019117°S 141.033561°E / -4.019117; 141.033561 (Biake 2)) of Biake ward, Green River Rural LLG in Sandaun Province.[3][4]

Pyu
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionGreen River Rural LLG in Sandaun Province, near Indonesian border
Native speakers
100 (2000 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3pby
Glottologpyuu1245
ELPPyu[2]
Coordinates: 4.019117°S 141.033561°E / -4.019117; 141.033561 (Biake 2)

Classification

Timothy Usher links the Pyu language to its neighbors, the Left May languages and the Amto–Musan languages, in as Arai–Samaia stock.[5]

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[6] found lexical similarities with Kimki. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

Based on limited lexical evidence, Pyu had been linked to the putative Kwomtari–Fas family, but that family is apparently spurious and Foley (2018) notes that Pyu and Kwomtari are highly divergent from each other. Some similar pronoun found in both Kwomtari and Pyu:[7]

pronounPyuKwomtari
‘1PL, we’məlamena
‘2SG, you (sg)’noune
‘3, he/she/it/they’nanane

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Conrad & Dye (1975)[8] and Voorhoeve (1975),[9] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[10]

glossPyu
head uǏiʔ; wiri
hair Ǐɩsiʔ; lisi
ear kweɛ
eye bəmeʔ; pɛmɛʔɛ
nose tɛpʌǏi
tooth rəne
tongue asaguʔ
louse ni; niʔ
dog naguʔ; nakwu
pig we; wɛʔ
bird maǏuǏiʔ; maru
egg Ǐio taʔ; taʔ
blood ɛmiʔ; kami
bone bəli; bɩǏiʔ
skin kagole; kʌkʌǏɛʔ
breast ib̶iʔ
tree ga; ka
man tali; taliʔ
woman Ǐomæʔ
sun agwiʔ
water ʔiʔ; yi
fire kamie; kʌmæ
stone siri; sɩliʔ
road, path ʔonæ; ʔonɛ
eat waŋgɛʔ
one tefiye; tɛᵽiɛʔ
two kasi

References
  1. Pyu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Pyu.
  3. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
  4. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  5. NewGuineaWorld, Arai and Samaia Rivers
  6. Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).
  7. 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. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  8. Conrad, R. and Dye, W. "Some Language Relationships in the Upper Sepik Region of Papua New Guinea". In Conrad, R., Dye, W., Thomson, N. and Bruce Jr., L. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 18. A-40:1-36. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-A40.1
  9. Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
  10. Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
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