Duwet, also known as Guwot or Waing, is an aberrant member of the Busu subgroup of Lower Markham languages in

Morobe Province Morobe Province is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810 (2011 census), and since the division of Southern Highlands ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. Duwet is spoken by about 400 people and appears to have been heavily influenced by its neighboring

Nabak language Nabak (also known as ''Wain'') is a Papuan language spoken by around 16,000 people in the Morobe Province located in the western Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea. Nabak follows the SOV typology. It uses Latin script The Latin script, also ...

(also called Wain) of the Papuan

Trans–New Guinea languages Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands ‒ corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as parts of Indonesia. Trans–New Guinea is the third-la ...

. It is spoken in the three villages of Lambaip, Lawasumbileng, and Ninggiet. Duwet is spoken in the three villages of Lambaip (), Lawasumbileng, and Ninggiet in Nabak Rural LLG.

Morphology

Pronouns and person markers

Subject prefixes

Numerals

Traditional Duwet numerals include only three basic forms: 'one', 'two', and 'hand (= five)'.

References

* Holzknecht, Susanne (2001). "Number and Person in the Duwet Language of Papua New Guinea." In Andrew Pawley, Malcolm Ross, and Darrell Tryon, eds., ''The Boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian Linguistics in Honour of Tom Dutton,'' 175-191. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. {{Languages of Papua New Guinea Markham languages Languages of Morobe Province Vulnerable languages