Pawaia, also known as ''Sira, Tudahwe, Yasa'', is a Papuan language that forms a tentative independent branch of the Trans–New Guinea family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005).

Distribution

Pawaia is spoken in: *

Chimbu Province Chimbu, more frequently spelled Simbu, is a province in the Highlands Region of Papua New Guinea. The province has an area of 6,112 km2 and a population of 376,473 (2011 census). The capital of the province is Kundiawa. Mount Wilhelm, the t ...

: Karimui District *

Eastern Highlands Province Eastern Highlands is a highlands province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Goroka. The province covers an area of 11,157 km2, and has a population of 579,825 (2011 census). The province shares a common administrative boundary w ...

: Lufa District and

Okapa District Okapa District is a district of the Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Gu ...

, Lamari River *

Gulf Province Gulf Province is a province of Papua New Guinea located on the southern coast. The provincial capital is Kerema. The 34,472 km2 province is dominated by mountains, lowland river deltas, and grassland flood plains. In Gulf Province, the Kiko ...

: Baimuru Rural LLG,

Purari River The Purari (also known as Puraari) is a river that originates in the south central highlands especially in Kandep District of Enga Province of Papua New Guinea, flowing though Gulf Province to the Gulf of Papua. The Purari has a drainage bas ...

near Oroi

Classification

Although Pawaia has reflexes of proto-Trans–New Guinea vocabulary, Ross considers its inclusion questionable on available evidence. Usher classifies it instead with the

Teberan languages The Teberan languages are a well established family of Papuan languages that Stephen Wurm (1975) grouped with the Pawaia language as a branch of the Trans–New Guinea phylum. There are two Teberan languages, Dadibi and Folopa (Podopa). The ...

. Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified rather than as part of Trans-New Guinea. Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider there to be sufficient evidence for Pawaia to be classified as part of Trans-New Guinea, though they do note the following lexical resemblances between Pawaia and proto-Trans-New Guinea. *''emi'' ‘breast’ < *amu *''in'' ‘tree’ < *inda *''su'' ‘tooth’ < *(s,t)i(s,t)i

Phonology

Pawaia is also tonal, contrasting high and low tone.

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Macdonald (1973) and Trefry (1969), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: :

References

External links