Wiru language

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

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[3]
Map: The Wiru language of New Guinea   The Wiru language   Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

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).

Evolution

Wiru reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:[4]

• 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

1. Wiru at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. New Guinea World, Tua River
3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Wiru". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
4. 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.

Further reading

• "Outside and Inside Meanings: Non-Verbal and Verbal Modalities of Agonistic Communication the Wiru of Papua New Guinea" in Man and Culture in Oceania, Vol. 15

External links

• Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Witu