The Busa language, also known as Odiai (Uriai), is spoken in three hamlets of northwestern

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. There were 244 speakers at the time of the 2000 census. One of the hamlets where Busa is spoken is Busa () in Rawei ward,

Green River Rural LLG Green River Rural LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located along the border with Keerom Regency, Papua Province, Indonesia. Rivers Rivers that flow through the LLG include the Samaia River. La ...

Sandaun Province Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland province of Papua New Guinea. It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population of 248,411 (2011 census). The capital is Vanimo. In July 1998 the a ...

. Busa speakers are in extensive trade and cultural contact with Yadë, a distantly related language spoken in six villages to the north of the Busa area.

Classification

Busa may be one of the

Kwomtari languages The Senu River languages are a small language family spoken in the Senu River watershed of Papua New Guinea. They consist at least of the Kwomtari languages, Kwomtari and Nai, with several additional languages more distantly related to them. ...

. Foley (2018) classifies Busa as a language isolate (meaning unclassified), but does not exclude the possibility that it may have a distant relationship with the

Torricelli languages The Torricelli languages are a family of about fifty languages of the northern Papua New Guinea coast, spoken by about 80,000 people. They are named after the Torricelli Mountains. The most populous and best known Torricelli language is Arapesh, ...

Pronouns

Pronouns are: :

Basic vocabulary

Busa basic vocabulary listed in Foley (2018): : The following basic vocabulary words are from Conrad and Dye (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: :

Affixes

Busa subject agreement affixes are: : The Busa possessive suffix -''ni'' is also found in proto-

Sepik The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...

as the dative suffix *ni, as well as in Ama, a Left May language.

References

External links

Odiai language word list at TransNewGuinea.org
{{language families Unclassified languages of New Guinea Languages of Sandaun Province Senu River languages