Wiru language

Wiru
	Witu
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Ialibu-Pangia District,; Southern Highlands Province
Ethnicity	Wiru
Native speakers	(15,300 cited 1967, repeated 1981)[1]
Language family	Papuan Gulf ? Teberan–Pawaian[2] Wiru; ;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wiu
Glottolog	wiru1244
ELP	Wiru[3]
	Map: The Wiru language of New Guinea The Wiru language Trans–New Guinea languages Other Papuan languages Austronesian languages Uninhabited

Wiru or Witu is the language spoken by the Wiru people of Ialibu-Pangia District of the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea.

There are a considerable number of resemblances with the Engan languages, suggesting Wiru might be a member of that family, but language contact has not been ruled out as the reason. Usher classifies it with the Teberan languages.

Pronouns

Trans–New Guinea–like pronouns are no 1sg (< *na) and ki-wi 2pl, ki-ta 2du (< *ki).

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Franklin (1973,[4] 1975),[5] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[6]

gloss	Wiru
head	tobou
hair	pine; píne
ear	kabidi
eye	lene
nose	timini
tooth	kime
tongue	keke; keké
leg	kawa
louse	nomo; nomò
dog	tue
pig	kaì
bird	ini; inì
egg	mu̧
blood	kamate
bone	tono
skin	kepene
breast	adu
tree	yomo; yomò
man	ali
woman	atoa; atòa
sun	lou; loú
moon	tokene
water	ue; uè
fire	toe
stone	kue; kué
name	ibini; ibíni
eat	nakò; one ne nako
one	odene
two	takuta; ta kutà

Evolution

Wiru reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:[7]

ibi(ni) ‘name’ < *imbi
nomo ‘louse’ < *niman
laga ‘ashes’ < *la(ŋg,k)a
tokene ‘moon’ < *takVn[V]
mane ‘instructions, incantations’ < *mana
keda ‘heavy’ < *ke(nd,n)a
mo- ‘negative prefix’ < *ma-

References

Wiru at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
New Guinea World, Tua River
Endangered Languages Project data for Wiru.
Franklin, K.J. "Other Language Groups in the Gulf District and Adjacent Areas". In Franklin, K. editor, The linguistic situation in the Gulf District and adjacent areas, Papua New Guinea. C-26:261-278. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1973. doi:10.15144/PL-C26.261
Franklin K.J. 1975. Comments on Proto-Engan. In S.A. Wurm, Ed. New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study: Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, pp. 263-275.
Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". 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. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

External links

Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Witu

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[e18-1] Wiru at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)

[2] New Guinea World, Tua River

[ELP1-3] Endangered Languages Project data for Wiru.

[4] Franklin, K.J. "Other Language Groups in the Gulf District and Adjacent Areas". In Franklin, K. editor, The linguistic situation in the Gulf District and adjacent areas, Papua New Guinea. C-26:261-278. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1973. doi:10.15144/PL-C26.261

[5] Franklin K.J. 1975. Comments on Proto-Engan. In S.A. Wurm, Ed. New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study: Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, pp. 263-275.

[6] Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.

[Pawley-TNG-7] Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". 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. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.