Awtuw language

Awtuw (Autu), also known as Kamnum, is spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It is a polysynthetic language closely related to Karawa and Pouye. It is spoken in Galkutua, Gutaiya (3°33′56″S 142°00′06″E/3.565508°S 142.001655°E/ -3.565508; 142.001655(Gutaiya)), Kamnom (3°33′09″S 141°59′39″E/3.552454°S 141.994165°E/ -3.552454; 141.994165(Kamnom)), Tubum (3°34′03″S 142°00′13″E/3.567408°S 142.003722°E/ -3.567408; 142.003722(Tubum)), and Wiup (3°33′14″S 141°59′04″E/3.553766°S 141.9845°E/ -3.553766; 141.9845(Wiup)) villages in Kamnom East ward, East Wapei Rural LLG, Sandaun Province.

It is an endangered language, being widely replaced by Tok Pisin.

Phonology

Awtuw consonants are:

Awtuw vowels are:

Pronouns

Pronouns are:

sg du pl 1 wan nan nom 2 yen an om 3m rey ræw rom 3f tey

Verbal morphology

Awtuw has a very rich verbal morphology, with 8 prefixal slots encoding tense, aspect, modality, polarity, subject number and reciprocal.). Six of these slots contain prefixes that have cognates in Pouye.

The suffixal chain contains recently grammaticalized suffixes encoding associated motion, aspect, benefactive, and various unusual categories such as celerative -imya 'quickly' as in (1) (grammaticalized from the verb imya 'run'), simulative -panya 'pretend', and periodic tense (adauroral -alw 'until dawn').

Rey

3sg:MASC

aeye

food

rokr’-imy’-e.

cook-CELER-PST

Rey aeye rokr’-imy’-e.

3sg:MASC food cook-CELER-PST

'He cooked the food quickly.' (Feldman 1983: 122–123)

• Feldman, Harry (1983). A grammar of Awtuw (PhD thesis). Australian National University. doi:. hdl:.
• Feldman, Harry (1986). . Pacific Linguistics Series B - No. 94. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University. doi:. hdl:. ISBN 0-85883-342-5.
• Whitehead, Carl R. 1992. Review of: a grammar of Awtuw, by Harry Feldman.