Language spoken in Papua New Guinea
Wiru or Witu is the language spoken by the Wiru people of Ialibu-Pangia District of the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. The language has been described by Harland Kerr, a missionary who lived in the Wiru community for many years. Kerr's work with the community produced a Wiru Bible translation and several unpublished dictionary manuscripts,[3] as well as Kerr's Master's thesis on the structure of Wiru verbs.[4]
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,[6] 1975),[7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[8]
| 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
|
Syntax
Wiru has a general noun-modifying clause construction.[9] In this construction, a noun can be modified by a clause that immediately precedes it. The noun may, but need not, correspond to an argument of the modifying clause. Such constructions can be used to express a wide range of semantic relationships between clause and noun. The follow examples all use the same noun-modifying clause construction:
[No ka-k-u] tono tubea.
1sg stay-prs-1sg mountain big
'The mountain I am on top of is big.'
piri-ki-ya.
lie-prs-2/3pl-hab
[Kia-nea karo pi-k-i] ail-aroa eida piri-ki-ya.
be.red-inf car lie-prs-2/3pl man-woman there lie-prs-2/3pl-hab
'The people who own red cars live there.'
[Kenbra namolo no-k-o] ko ou.
Canberra first come-pst-1pl story say.1sg.fut
'I'll tell the story about the first time we came to Canberra.'
no-ka-l-e...
come-pst-ds-2/3pl...
[Toro pea skul ke poa-rok-o] oi no-ka-l-e...
1pl all school loc go-opt-1pl time come-pst-ds-2/3pl...
'The time for all of us to go to school arrived...'
The noun-modifying clause construction imposes a falling tone on the head noun. That is, no matter what the lexical tone of the noun that is being modified is, it takes on a high-low tone pattern when it is modified in a noun-modifying clause construction.
Evolution
Wiru reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:[10]
- 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-
