Keuw (Keu, Kehu) is an unclassified language of New Guinea.
Keuw is spoken in a swampy lowland region along the Poronai River in Keuw village (kampung) of Wapoga District, Nabire Regency, Papua province, Indonesia. According to oral folklore, the Keuw were originally from Woisaru, and then moved to Sanawado, which may be locations in Wapoga District.Kamholz, David. 2012. The Keuw isolate: Preliminary materials and classification . In Harald Hammarström and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact, and classification of Papuan languages, 243–268. Special issue of Language and Linguistics in Melanesia. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
Classification Mark Donohue (2007) said that Kehu is "probably a Geelvink Bay language, but no one knows enough about those languages, systematically, to say this with confidence for [any of them] beyond Barapasi, T(ar)unggare and Bauzi."Donohue (2007)
Timothy Usher (2018) classifies it as a Lakes Plain language, closest to Awera and Rasawa–Saponi. According to Foley, based on some lexical and phonological similarities, Keuw may possibly share a deep relationship with the Lakes Plain languages. Palmer (2018) treats Keuw as a language isolate.
Phonology Phonology of Keuw from Kamholz (2012), quoted in Foley (2018):Kamholz, David. 2012. The Keuw isolate: preliminary materials and classification. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia Special Issue: History, Contact and Classification of Papuan Languages: 243–268.
Consonants Keuw has ten consonants.
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Plosive Fricative Liquid Semivowel
Vowels Keuw has five vowels.
Front Back Close Mid Open
Tone Keuw has contrastive tone. Some minimal pairs demonstrating phonemic tonal contrasts: áalìyò ‘tongue’, áalíyò ‘house’ kíilyô ‘possum’, kíilyò ‘arrow’ úukyò ‘grandfather’, úunyô ‘woman’
Syntax Keuw has SOV word order, as exemplified by the sentence below. The morphemic suffixes remain unglossed.
Basic vocabulary Basic vocabulary of Keuw from Kamholz (2012), quoted in Foley (2018):
|+ Keuw basic vocabulary ! gloss !! Keuw |- | ‘bird’ || páupǝn |- | ‘blood’ || kpíi |- | ‘bone’ || ntyéns |- | ‘breast’ || túulí |- | ‘ear’ || téemé |- | ‘eat’ || núu |- | ‘egg’ || bléemí |- | ‘eye’ || mlúul |- | ‘fire’ || núup |- | ‘go’ || páwì |- | ‘ground’ || píi |- | ‘hair’ || plíikd |- | ‘head’ || kpúunt |- | ‘leg’ || páud |- | ‘louse (body)’ || máa |- | ‘louse (head)’ || bréen |- | ‘man’ || méeli |- | ‘moon’ || dyúutǝn |- | ‘one’ || bíisìp |- | ‘path, road’ || ngkéempúkə |- | ‘see’ || líyè, tíyè, kúntáb |- | ‘sky’ || tpáapí |- | ‘stone’ || tóotí |- | ‘sun’ || tandən |- | ‘tooth’ || mée |- | ‘tree’ || kúd |- | ‘two’ || páid |- | ‘water’ || yél |- | ‘woman’ || úun
The following basic vocabulary words are from the Trans-New Guinea database:
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Keuw |- | head || kpúunt-yô |- | ear || téemé-yô |- | eye || mlúul-yô |- | nose || klókəә̀n-yô |- | tooth || mée-yô |- | tongue || áalì-yò |- | pig || kómúul-yò |- | egg || bléemí-yò |- | blood || kpíi-yò |- | bone || ntyéns-yô |- | skin || mpáakəә́t-yô |- | breast || túulí-yò |- | tree || kúd-yô |- | sky || tpáapí-yò |- | sun || táadəә́n-yô |- | moon || dyúutəә́n-yò |- | water || yél-yò |- | fire || núup-yò; óopí-yò |- | stone || tóotí-yò |- | road, path || ŋkéempúkəә̀-yô |- | eat || kéep-yô; núu-nô |- | one || bíisìp-yò |- | two || páid-yô
References
External links Keuw field recordings