Abau language

Abau is a Papuan language spoken in southern Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea, primarily along the border with Indonesia.

Abau
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionSandaun Province
Native speakers
7,500 (2008 census)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3aau
Glottologabau1245
ELPAbau

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.

Phonology

Abau has the simplest phonemic inventory in the Sepik language family.[2]

Vowels[2]
Front Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open ɑ
Consonants[2]
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n
Plosive p k
Fricative s h
Flap ɾ
Semivowel j w

Pronouns

Pronouns are:[3]

sgdupl
1 ha ~ hanhrorhrom
2 hwon ~ hun hoh hom
3m hiy ~ hi
3f 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
classformal markersemantics
class 1pruhuman, spirits
class 2k(a)-animals and default
class 3nasmall objects with some volume
class 4s(i)-flat surface objects
class 5pilong thin objects
class 6ugeographical locations
class 7iflat objects with little volume
class 8ricertain types of trees
class 9ein(d)-bundles of long uncut items
class 10reiktemporal
class 11hnawbundles of long cut items
class 12houk-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)

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Foley (2005)[4] and Laycock (1968),[5] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[6]

glossAbau
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

References
  1. Abau at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  2. Steven Moran and Daniel McCloy and Richard Wright. 2019. Abau sound inventory (PH). In: Moran, Steven & McCloy, Daniel (eds.) PHOIBLE 2.0. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. (Available online at http://phoible.org/inventories/view/1160, Accessed on 2019-04-23.)
  3. 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.
  4. Foley, W.A. "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu basin". In Pawley, A., Attenborough, R., Golson, J. and Hide, R. editors, Papuan Pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. PL-572:109-144. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2005.
  5. Laycock, Donald C. 1968. Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66.
  6. Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
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