Awtuw language

Awtuw (Autu), also known as Kamnum, is spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It is a polysynthetic language closely related to Karawa and Pouye. It is spoken in Galkutua, Gutaiya (3.565508°S 142.001655°E / -3.565508; 142.001655 (Gutaiya)), Kamnom (3.552454°S 141.994165°E / -3.552454; 141.994165 (Kamnom)), Tubum (3.567408°S 142.003722°E / -3.567408; 142.003722 (Tubum)), and Wiup (3.553766°S 141.9845°E / -3.553766; 141.9845 (Wiup)) villages in Kamnom East ward, East Wapei Rural LLG, Sandaun Province.^[1][2]

Awtuw
Region	East Wapei Rural LLG, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	700 (2014)[1]
Language family	Sepik Ram Awtuw
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kmn
Glottolog	awtu1239
ELP	Awtuw

It is an endangered language, being widely replaced by Tok Pisin.

Phonology

Awtuw consonants are:^[3]

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Plosive	p	t		k
Rhotic		r	ɻ
Lateral		l
Semivowel	w		j

Awtuw vowels are:^[3]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e	ə	o
Near-open	æ
Open	a

Pronouns

Pronouns are:^[3]

	sg	du	pl
1	wan	nan	nom
2	yen	an	om
3m	rey	ræw	rom
3f	tey

Verbal morphology

Awtuw has a very rich verbal morphology, with 8 prefixal slots encoding tense, aspect, modality, polarity, subject number and reciprocal.^[4]). Six of these slots contain prefixes that have cognates in Pouye.^[5]

The suffixal chain contains recently grammaticalized suffixes encoding associated motion, aspect, benefactive, and various unusual categories such as celerative -imya 'quickly' as in (1) (grammaticalized from the verb imya 'run'),^[6] simulative -panya 'pretend',^[7] and periodic tense (adauroral -alw 'until dawn').^[8]

(1)

Rey

3sg:MASC

aeye

food

rokr’-imy’-e.

cook-CELER-PST

Rey aeye rokr’-imy’-e.

3sg:MASC food cook-CELER-PST

'He cooked the food quickly.' (Feldman 1983: 122–123)