Waskia language

Waskia (Vaskia, Woskia) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken on half of Karkar Island, and a small part of the shore on the mainland, by 20,000 people; language use is vigorous. The Waskia share their island with speakers of Takia, an Oceanic language which has been restructured under the influence of Waskia, which is the inter-community language. Waskia has been documented extensively by Malcolm Ross and is being further researched by Andrew Pick.

Waskia is spoken in Tokain (4°42′56″S 145°38′02″E / 4.715575°S 145.633995°E / -4.715575; 145.633995 (Tokain)), a village in Malas ward, Sumgilbar Rural LLG on the coast of mainland New Guinea, and on Karkar Island, with the island and mainland varieties being lexically divergent from each other.

/ɡ/ can be pronounced as a fricative [ɣ] when in intervocalic positions.

Below are some Waskia lexical forms compared with Amako and Proto-Northern Adelbert.

• Ross, Malcolm D.; John Natu Paol (1978). A Waskia grammar sketch and vocabulary. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-85883-174-2. OCLC 4524381.