Sepik Iwam language

Sepik Iwam
Yawenian
Region	East Sepik Province
Native speakers	(2,500 cited 2000 census)[1]
Language family	Sepik Upper Sepik Iwam Sepik Iwam
Language codes
ISO 639-3	iws
Glottolog	sepi1255
ELP	Sepik Iwam
Coordinates: 4.291°S 142.01°E / -4.291; 142.01 (Iniok)

Hauna pidgin
Region	East Sepik Province
Native speakers	None
Language family	Iwam-based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	haun1238

Sepik Iwam, or Yawenian, is a language of Papua New Guinea. It is the lexical basis of the Hauna trade pidgin.

It is spoken in villages such as Iniok (4.291°S 142.01°E / -4.291; 142.01 (Iniok)) in Tunap/Hunstein Rural LLG of East Sepik Province.^[2][3]

Phonology

Consonants^[4]

		Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	k
	voiced	b	d	ɡ
Fricative			s		h
Liquid			r
Semivowel		w	j

Vowels^[4]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

Pronouns

Sepik Iwam pronouns:^[4]: 282

		singular	dual	plural
1st person		ka	kərar	kəram
2nd person		kə	kow	kom
3rd person	masculine	si	sow	səm
	feminine	sa

Grammar

Sepik Iwam subject agreement suffixes are:^[4]

	singular	dual	plural
masculine	*-ən	*-o	*-əm
feminine	*-a

The structure of this subject agreement paradigm can be traced back to Proto-Sepik, although the morphemes themselves do not seem to be directly related to the reconstructed Proto-Sepik forms. (See also Sepik languages#Gender.)

Like May River Iwam, Sepik Iwam has periodic tense, for instance the matutinal -iyakwok.^[5][6]

References

1. Sepik Iwam at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
3. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
4. Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
5. Jacques, Guillaume (2023). "Periodic tense markers in the world's languages and their sources". Folia Linguistica. 57 (3): 539–562. doi:10.1515/flin-2023-2013.
6. Foley (2018:284)

Further reading

• "Organised Phonology Data" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)