Isirawa language
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| Isirawa | |
|---|---|
| Saberi | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Papua |
Native speakers | 1,800 (2000)[1] |
|
language isolate? Greater Kwerba? | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | srl |
Isirawa is a Papuan language spoken by about two thousand people on the north coast of Papua province, Indonesia. It's a local trade language, and use is vigorous. Stephen Wurm (1975) linked it to the Kwerba languages within the Trans–New Guinea family, and it does share about 20% of its vocabulary with neighboring Kwerba languages. However, based on its pronouns, Malcolm Ross (2005) felt he could not substantiate such a link, and left it as a language isolate. The pronouns are not, however, dissimilar from those of Orya–Tor, which Ross links to Kwerba, and Donahue (2002) accept it as a Greater Kwerba language.
Pronouns
The Isirawa pronouns are,
I a-, e we nen-, ne you o-, mə all third person e-, maə, ce, pe
Ross's reconstructed Orya–Tor pronouns are *ai 'I', *ne 'we' (inclusive), *emei 'thou', *em 'you'.
References
- ↑ Isirawa reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
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