Waia_language
Tabo language
Isolate language spoken in Papua New Guinea
Tabo, also known as Waia (Waya), is a Papuan language of Western Province, Papua New Guinea, just north of the Fly River delta. The language has also been known as Hiwi and Hibaradai.[2]
| Waia | |
|---|---|
| Tabo | |
| Region | Western Province, Papua New Guinea |
Native speakers | 3,000 (2002)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | knv |
| Glottolog | tabo1241 |
| ELP | Tabo |
Map: The Waia language of New Guinea
The Waia language (south center)
Trans–New Guinea languages
Other Papuan languages
Austronesian languages
Uninhabited | |
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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.[3]
Tabo is not close to other languages. Evans (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.[3] Usher (2020) includes it in the Trans-Fly family.[4] 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.
In Gogodala Rural LLG, Western Province, Papua New Guinea, Tabo is spoken in:[5][6]
- Lower Aramia River: Alagi (8.053774°S 142.961739°E / -8.053774; 142.961739 (Waligi)), Galu, Saiwase (7.958242°S 143.203232°E / -7.958242; 143.203232 (Saiwase)), and Waya (7.984933°S 143.182042°E / -7.984933; 143.182042 (Waya)) villages
- Bamu River: Alikinapi village
- Lower Fly River: Kenedibi (8.240667°S 143.380404°E / -8.240667; 143.380404 (Kenedibi)), Urio (8.239063°S 143.394333°E / -8.239063; 143.394333 (Urio)), and Wagumi-Sarau villages
- Segero Creek: Segero village (8.232149°S 143.536743°E / -8.232149; 143.536743 (Sagero))
It is spoken by 3,500 people mainly in the southern part Bamu Rural LLG of Western Province.[3]
The phonemic inventory of Tabo is given below.[3]
- Consonants
- b, d, ɡ, p, t, k, m, n, l, w, j, h, s
- Vowels
- i, e, æ, a, o, u
The following basic vocabulary words are from Reesink (1976) and Wurm (1973), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[7]
| gloss | Tabo |
|---|---|
| head | wato |
| hair | hinibó; hinibɔ |
| ear | galo |
| eye | ba ͥdi; baidi |
| nose | dopo; dɔ:pɔ |
| tooth | lalo; lolo |
| tongue | mɛlpila; merapira |
| leg | nato |
| louse | tamani |
| dog | gaha |
| bird | hola; hola: |
| egg | kikipo |
| blood | hawi; haᵘwi |
| bone | goha; goha: |
| skin | tama |
| breast | nono |
| tree | ke'ha; kɛha |
| man | dubu; tubu |
| woman | kamena |
| sun | kadepa; kadɛpa |
| moon | manome; manomi |
| water | bea |
| fire | koe; kue: |
| stone | -nadi; naki |
| road, path | gabo |
| name | mahiro; mahiřo |
| eat | hɛna; nɛ:na |
| one | kapia |
| two | nete'ewa |
- Schlatter, Tim. 2003. Tabo language grammar sketch (Aramia River Dialect). Unpublished m.s.
- Waia at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Tabo language". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Evans, Nicholas (2018). "The languages of Southern New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 641–774. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
- United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.