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 tal ...

: Karimui District *

Eastern Highlands Province Eastern Highlands is a highlands province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Goroka Goroka is the capital of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. It is a town of approximately 19,000 people (2000), above sea level. It ...

Lufa District Lufa District is a district of the Eastern Highlands Province in 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 Ste ...

and

Okapa District Okapa District is a district of the Eastern Highlands Province in 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 St ...

Lamari River Lamari River is a river that originates in Kratke Range in the south central highlands of Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. It flows into the Purari River basin. Population Awa speaking indigenous people populate Lamari river basi ...

Gulf Province A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodies ...

: Baimuru Rural LLG,

Purari River Purari may refer to: * Purari River, Papua New Guinea * Purari language, a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea {{Disambig ...

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). They ...

. 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

Vocabulary

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

References

External links

* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Pawaia
{{language families Languages of Papua New Guinea Teberan–Pawaian languages

Distribution

Classification

Vocabulary

Further reading

References

External links