Piawi languages

Infobox Language family
name=Piawi
region=Papua New Guinea
familycolor=Papuan
family=a primary family of Papuan languages
child1=Hagahai
child2=Haruai

The Piawi languages are a small independent family of Papuan languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross, that had been part of Stephen Würm's Trans-New Guinea proposal.

Classification

Piawi consists of only two languages:

* Piawi family: Hagahai (Pinai), Haruai (Waibuk)

Davies and Comrie 1985 noted some pronominal similarities with the Engan languages in Trans-New Guinea, which Ross took into consideration, but no lexical similarities. Comrie believes the family is as isolate. According to Ross, connections with Ramu languages such as Arafundi appear more promising.

Pronouns

Below is a comparison of proto-Piawi, proto-Ramu, Arafundi, and proto-North Engan pronouns, per Ross. Initial nasals are ubiquitous, and indeed are very common throughout New Guinea, so they are in themselves not good evidence of a relationship.

Both Engan and Piawi have a dual suffix "*li".

ee also

*Papuan languages

References