Iwal language

Infobox Language
name=Iwal
states=Papua New Guinea
region=Morobe Province
speakers=1,500 (1987 SIL)
familycolor=Austronesian
fam2=Malayo-Polynesian
fam3=Central-Eastern
fam4=Eastern
fam5=Oceanic
fam6=Western
fam7=North New Guinea
fam8=Huon Gulf
fam9=South Huon Gulf
script=
iso2=
iso3=kbm

Iwal (also called Kaiwa from Jabêm Kai Iwac 'Iwac highlanders') is an Austronesian language spoken by about 1,900 people from nine villages in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea (Cobb & Wroge 1990). Although it appears most closely related to the South Huon Gulf languages, it is the most conservative member of its subgroup.

Phonology

Iwal distinguishes 5 vowels and 16 consonants. Unlike most of its neighboring languages, it distinguishes the lateral /l/ from the trill /r/, the latter derived from earlier *s, as in "aru" from Proto-Oceanic (POc) *qasu 'smoke', "ruru-" from POc *susu 'breast', and "ur" from POc *qusan 'rain'. Otherwise it appears to be the most phonologically conservative language in the South Huon Gulf chain (see Ross 1988:154-160). It has retained POc *t as /t/ (not /l/ or /y/) and POc *mw as /mw/ (not /my/ or /ny/), as in "mwat" 'snake' from POc *mwata.

Vowels (orthographic)

Genitive pronouns

Bioclassifying prefixes

One unusual feature of Iwal is a small set of bioclassifying prefixes: "ei-" (POc *kayu) for trees, "wer-" for edible greens, "man(k)-" (POc *manuk) for birds, "ih-" (POc *ikan) for fish.
* "eivovo" 'canoe, canoe tree'
* "eiweiwei" 'mango tree' (POc *waiwai)
* "weru" 'two-leaf (Tok Pisin "tulip"), "Gnetum gnemon", a tree with paired edible leaves'
* "weryambum" 'cabbage'
* "mankbubu" 'pigeon' (POc *bune)
* "mankaruel" 'cassowary' (POc *kasuari)
* "ihtangir" 'Spanish mackeral' (Tok Pisin "tangir")

yntax

Word order

The basic word order in Iwal is SVO, with (mostly) prepositions, preposed genitives, postposed adjectives and relative clauses. Relative clauses are marked at both ends, and so are some prepositional phrases. Negatives come at the ends of the clauses they negate. There is also a class of deverbal resultatives that follow the main verb (and its object, if any).

:'They'll see the things I have done.'

Verb serialization

Verb serialization is very common in Iwal. Within a serial verb construction, all verbs must agree in tense and the perfective marker is itself a serialized verb. Negatives come at the ends of the clauses they negate.

:'It rolled on down until it stopped.'

Note

The primary source for this article is Bradshaw (2001), whose copyright holder is Joel Bradshaw, whose contributions here are licensed under the GFDL.

External links

*ethnologue|code=kbm

References

* Anon. (2004). Organised Phonology Data: Iwal (Kaiwa) language. Summer Institute of Linguistics. [http://www.sil.org/pacific/png/pubs/0000143/Iwal.pdf]
* Bradshaw, Joel (2001). "Iwal grammar essentials, with comparative notes." In Andrew Pawley, Malcolm Ross, Darrell Tryon, eds., "The boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian linguistics in honour of Tom Dutton," 51-74. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
* Cobb, Elyse, and Diane Wroge (1990). "Iwal transfer primer and teachers' training course." "Read" 25(2):40-44. Summer Institute of Linguistics.
* Ross, Malcolm (1988). "Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of western Melanesia." Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.