Pyu language (Papuan)

Language isolate spoken in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pyu is a language isolate spoken in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. As of 2000, the language had about 100 speakers in Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Biake No. 2 village (4.019117°S 141.033561°E / -4.019117; 141.033561 (Biake 2)) of Biake ward, Green River Rural LLG in Sandaun Province.[2][3] Additionally, there are about 150 speakers in Batom District, Pegunungan Bintang Regency, Highland Papua, Indonesia.[4][5]

Quick Facts Native to, Region ...
Pyu
Native toPapua New Guinea
Indonesia
Region
Native speakers
250 (2012 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3pby
Glottologpyuu1245
ELPPyu
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Pyu
Coordinates: 4.019117°S 141.033561°E / -4.019117; 141.033561 (Biake 2)
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Classification

Timothy Usher links the Pyu language to its neighbors, the Left May languages and the Amto–Musan languages, in as Arai–Samaia stock.[6]

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[7] found lexical similarities with Kimki. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

Based on limited lexical evidence, Pyu had been linked to the putative Kwomtari–Fas family, but that family is apparently spurious and Foley (2018) notes that Pyu and Kwomtari are highly divergent from each other. Some similar pronouns are found in both Kwomtari and Pyu:[8]

More information pronoun, Kwomtari ...
pronounPyuKwomtari
‘1PL, we’məlamena
‘2SG, you (sg)’noune
‘3, he/she/it/they’nanane
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Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Conrad & Dye (1975)[9] and Voorhoeve (1975),[10] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[11]

More information gloss, head ...
glossPyu
head uǏiʔ; wiri
hair Ǐɩsiʔ; lisi
ear kweɛ
eye bəmeʔ; pɛmɛʔɛ
nose tɛpʌǏi
tooth rəne
tongue asaguʔ
louse ni; niʔ
dog naguʔ; nakwu
pig we; wɛʔ
bird maǏuǏiʔ; maru
egg Ǐio taʔ; taʔ
blood ɛmiʔ; kami
bone bəli; bɩǏiʔ
skin kagole; kʌkʌǏɛʔ
breast ib̶iʔ
tree ga; ka
man tali; taliʔ
woman Ǐomæʔ
sun agwiʔ
water ʔiʔ; yi
fire kamie; kʌmæ
stone siri; sɩliʔ
road, path ʔonæ; ʔonɛ
eat waŋgɛʔ
one tefiye; tɛᵽiɛʔ
two kasi
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References

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