Pawaia language

Pawaia, also known as Sira, Tudahwe, Yasa, is a Papuan language that forms a tentative independent branch of the Trans–New Guinea family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005).

Pawaia is spoken in:

• Chimbu Province: Karimui District
• Eastern Highlands Province: Lufa District and Okapa District, Lamari River
• Gulf Province: Baimuru Rural LLG, Purari River near Oroi

Although Pawaia has reflexes of proto-Trans–New Guinea vocabulary, Ross considers its inclusion questionable on available evidence. Usher classifies it instead with the Teberan languages. Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified rather than as part of Trans-New Guinea.

Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider there to be sufficient evidence for Pawaia to be classified as part of Trans-New Guinea, though they do note the following lexical resemblances between Pawaia and proto-Trans-New Guinea.

• emi ‘breast’ < *amu
• in ‘tree’ < *inda
• su ‘tooth’ < *(s,t)i(s,t)i

Pawaia is also tonal, contrasting high and low tone.

The following basic vocabulary words are from Macdonald (1973) and Trefry (1969), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

• Trefry, David. 1969. A Comparative Study of Kuman and Pawaian. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. doi:10.15144/PL-572. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.

• Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Pawaia