Tabo, also known as Waia (Waya), is a

Papuan language The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian and non- Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogra ...

Western Province, Papua New Guinea Western Province is a coastal province in southwestern Papua New Guinea, bordering the Indonesian province of Papua. The provincial capital is Daru. The largest town in the province is Tabubil. Other major settlements are Kiunga, Ningerum, Olsob ...

, just north of the

Fly River The Fly River is the third longest river in the island of New Guinea, after the Sepik River and Mamberamo River, with a total length of and the largest by volume of discharge in Oceania, the largest in the world without a single dam in its ca ...

delta. The language has also been known as Hiwi and Hibaradai. ''Tabo'' means ‘word, mouth’ and is the name of the language, whereas ''Waia'' is the name of one of the ten villages where Tabo is spoken.

Classification

Tabo is not close to other languages. Evans (2018) classifies it as a

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The nu ...

. Usher (2020) includes it in the Trans-Fly family.NewGuineaWorld
/ref> Part of the uncertainty is because many of the attested words of Tabo are loans from Gogodala or Kiwai, reducing the number of native Tabo words that can be used for comparison and thus making classification difficult.

Demographics

Gogodala Rural LLG Gogodala Rural LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of Western Province, Papua New Guinea. The Gogodala-Suki languages, Dibiyaso, and Turumsa are mostly spoken within this LLG. Wards *01. Ali *02. Makapa ( Turumsa language and Dibiyaso langu ...

, Tabo is spoken in: *Lower

Aramia River The Aramia River is a river in southwestern Papua New Guinea. Aramia Riverin Geonames.org (cc-by) post updated 2013-05-07; database downloaded 2015-06-22 See also *List of rivers of Papua New Guinea * Aramia River languages (Gogodala–Suki langu ...

: Alagi (), Galu, Saiwase (), and Waya () villages * Bamu River: Alikinapi village *Lower

: Kenedibi (), Urio (), and Wagumi-Sarau villages * Segero Creek: Segero village () It is spoken by 3,500 people mainly in the southern part

Bamu Rural LLG Bamu Rural LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of Western Province, Papua New Guinea. The Kamula language is spoken in the LLG, near the Wawoi Falls area. Wards *01. Samakopa ( Kamula language speakers) *02. Kawalasi *03. Kamusi *04. Parieme ...

of Western Province.

Phonology

The phonemic inventory of Tabo is given below. ;Consonants: b, d, ɡ, p, t, k, m, n, l, w, j, h, s ;Vowels: i, e, æ, a, o, u

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Reesink (1976) and Wurm (1973), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: :

References

External links