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 (), Kamnom (), Tubum (), and 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:
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Nasal Plosive Rhotic Lateral Semivowel
Awtuw vowels are:
Front Central Back Close Close-mid Near-open Open
Pronouns Pronouns are:
! !! sg !! du !! pl |- ! 1 | wan || nan || nom |- ! 2 | yen || an || om |- ! 3m | rey | rowspan="2" | ræw | rowspan="2" | 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').
References
Whitehead, Carl R. 1992. Review of: a grammar of Awtuw, by Harry Feldman. Rosetta Project:Awtuw Swadesh List