Kairiru language

Kairiru
Region Northern New Guinea
Native speakers
3,200 (2000 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 kxa
Glottolog kair1263[2]

Kairiru is one of three Kairiru languages spoken mainly on Kairiru and Mushu islands and in several coastal villages on the mainland between Cape Karawop and Cape Samein near Wewak in East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea.

Morphology

Pronouns and person markers

One remarkable feature of the pronoun system of Kairiru is that it appears to have lost the distinction between 1st person inclusive and exclusive pronouns throughout its affix paradigms, but then recreated inclusive forms in its independent pronouns by combining 1st person and 2nd person forms along the lines of Tok Pisin yumi (< yu + mi). The inclusive-exclusive distinction is almost universal among Austronesian languages but generally lacking in Papuan languages.

Free pronouns

Person Singular Plural Dual
1st person inclusive taqam tuyieq
1st person exclusive kyau qait tu
2nd person yieq qam qum
3rd person ei rri rru

Genitive pronouns

Person Singular Plural Dual
1st person inclusive taqait taqatu
1st person exclusive wokyau tamoit taqatu
2nd person yieqayieq maqam moqum
3rd person yaqai rraqarri rraqarru

Possessive suffixes on inalienable nouns

Person Singular Plural Dual
1st person inclusive -qait -tu
1st person exclusive -k -qait -tu
2nd person -m -qam -qum
3rd person -ny -rri -rru

Subject prefixes on verbs

Person Singular Plural Dual
1st person inclusive ta- ti-
1st person exclusive wu- ta- ti-
2nd person qo- ka- qu-
3rd person a- rra- rri-

Object suffixes on verbs

Person Singular Plural Dual
1st person inclusive -qait -tu
1st person exclusive -(ky)au -qait -tu
2nd person -(y)ieq -qam -qum
3rd person -i/-Ø -rri/-Ø -rru

References

  1. Kairiru at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Kairiru". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
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