Isirawa is a
Papuan language
The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...
spoken by about two thousand people on the north coast of
Papua province
Papua is a province of Indonesia, comprising the northern coast of Western New Guinea together with island groups in Cenderawasih Bay to the west. It roughly follows the borders of the Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri, and is divided in ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. It is a local trade language, and use is vigorous.
Stephen Wurm
Stephen Adolphe Wurm (, ; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist.
Early life
Wurm was born in Budapest, the second child to the German-speaking Adolphe Wurm and the Hungarian-speaking Anna Novroczky. ...
(1975) linked it to the
Kwerba languages
The half dozen Kwerba languages form a small language family spoken in Papua Province, Indonesia.
Languages
The languages are,
*Bagusa language, Bagusa
*Kauwera language, Kauwera (Kaowerawedj)
*Kwerba language, Kwerba (Sasawa, Air Mati)
*Kwerba ...
within the
Trans–New Guinea family, and it does share about 20% of its vocabulary with neighboring Kwerba languages. However, based on its pronouns,
Malcolm Ross (2005) felt he could not substantiate such a link, and left it as a
language isolate
A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...
. The pronouns are not, however, dissimilar from those of
Orya–Tor, which Ross links to Kwerba, and Donahue (2002) accept it as a Greater Kwerba language.
Locations
In
Sarmi Regency
Sarmi Regency is one of the regencies (''kabupaten'') in Papua Province of Indonesia. It was formed from the western districts which had until then been part of Jayapura Regency with effect from 12 November 2002. It covers an area of 18,034.0 km2 ...
, Isirawa is spoken in Amsira, Arabais, Arsania, Kamenawari, Mararena, Martewar, Nisero, Nuerawar, Perkami, Siaratesa, Waim, Wari, and Webro villages.
Grammar
In Isirawa, the feminine gender is associated with big objects, and masculine with small objects; the opposite association is found in
Tayap and the
Sepik languages
The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a language family, family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik River, Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than prese ...
, which classify large objects as masculine rather than feminine.
Phonology
Consonants
*/n/ may be heard as
�when before /i/, and as
�when before /k/.
*/k/ can be heard as
�in syllable-final positions after a vowel.
*/j/ can also be heard as a fricative
�in free variation.
*/w/ can also be heard as
�when between back vowels.
Vowels
Pronouns
The Isirawa pronouns are,
:
Ross's reconstructed Orya–Tor pronouns are *ai 'I', *ne 'we' (inclusive), *emei 'thou', *em 'you'.
Isirawa pronoun paradigm as given in Foley (2018):
:
References
*Clouse, Duane, Mark Donohue and Felix Ma. 2002. "Survey report of the north coast of Irian Jaya
Languages of Western New Guinea
Unclassified languages of New Guinea
Kwerbic languages
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