The Piawi languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken in the Schraeder Range of the Madang Highlands of Papua New Guinea that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They are now connected to the Arafundi and Madang languages.

The name "Piawi" is an acronym of three language varieties: Pinai (Pinaye), Aramo/Aramaue (Hagahai) and Wiyaw (Harway/Waibuk). Pinai and Hagahai are often classified as a single language.

Classification Piawi consists of only two languages:

Piawi family: Pinai-Hagahai, Haruai (Waibuk)

Davies and Comrie (1985) noted some pronominal similarities with the Engan languages in Trans–New Guinea, which Ross took into consideration, but no lexical similarities. Comrie believes the family is as isolate. William A. Foley suggested that Piawi and Arafundi may be related (Comrie 1992),Comrie, Bernard. "The recognition of the Piawi language family." In Tom Dutton, Malcolm Ross and Darrell Tryon, eds. The language game: Papers in memory of Donald C. Laycock. 111-113. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1992. and according to Ross a connection with Arafundi or Ramu appears more promising than Engan. Timothy Usher confirms the link to Arafundi.NewGuineaWorld Arafundi and Upper Yuat Rivers

Pronouns Below is a comparison of proto-Piawi, proto-Ramu, Arafundi, and proto-North Engan pronouns, per Ross. Initial nasals are ubiquitous, and indeed are very common throughout New Guinea, so they are in themselves not good evidence of a relationship.

"I""thou""s/he""we two""you two""we""you"p-Piawi*ni-ga*na-ga*nu-ga*(n)ane-ga-li(mi)*ni-ga-li(mi)*ane-ga, *nane-ga*ni-ga p-Ramu*aŋko, *ni*un, *nu*man*a-ŋk-a*(n)o-ŋk-oa*a-ni, *na-ni*u-ni, *nu-ni Arafundiɲiŋnanndaaciniɲiaŋnuŋ p-N Engan*na-ba*ne-ba*-ba*na-li-ba*ɲa-li-mba*na-ni-ma*ɲa-ma, *ɲa-ka-ma

Both Engan and Piawi have a dual suffix *li.

Vocabulary comparison The following basic vocabulary words are from Davies & Comrie (1985),Davies, J. and Comrie, B. "A linguistic survey of the Upper Yuat". In Adams, K., Lauck, L., Miedema, J., Welling, F., Stokhof, W., Flassy, D., Oguri, H., Collier, K., Gregerson, K., Phinnemore, T., Scorza, D., Davies, J., Comrie, B. and Abbott, S. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 22. A-63:275-312. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1985. as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database. The Haruai data is from Tonson (1976).Tonson, J. 1976. The languages in the Schraeder ranges. Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages 16. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Pp. 91-112.

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. waɲa, wəɲa, wɛɲa for “dog”) or not (e.g. haŋietʰ, nauŋasi, namagə for “nose”).

gloss Haruai (Wiyaw dial.) Pinai-Hagahai (Wakadadap dial.) Pinai-Hagahai (Nangenuwetan dial.) Pinai-Hagahai (Aramo dial.) Haruai Pinai-Hagahai head ˈjeʥ̮ᵊˈmat̮ɑ ɩʥ̮ɩboˈʥ̮ɛ idᴶibəˈdᴶə iʥ̮uəˈxə yɛtʸəmatʸ ɩʥ̮ɩˈboʥ̮ɛ hair jeʥ̮ᵊˈϕan ɩʥ̮ɷmuˈda idᴶimuˈda iˌʥ̮iməˈda yɛntʸəᵽan ɩʥ̮ɷmɷˈda ear ɾ̥ɨmɨnt̮ɕ jɛnɷaˈʥ̮ə jənˈwadᴶə jɛnˈwaϕe jɛnuˈaʥ̮ɩ eye ˈmomakʰ məmɛˈʥ̮i mɛmɛˈdᴶi mɛmɛʥ̮əˈmagə mɛmaŋk mɛmɛˈʥ̮i nose haŋiˈetʰ nauˈŋasi namaˈga namaˈgə haŋantʸ namaˈgə tooth andzᵊmakᵡ ad̮ʑuaˈbə adᴶuˈabɤ ˌjɛd̮ʑɩ ˈmagə ad̮ʑuaˈβə tongue alᵊˈbʌɲ t̮suˈə; t̮suˈɛ suˈwɔ suˈə; syê sjuˈə leg ϕaˈletʰ əˈda; həˈda ˌaɤɔjɔˈdu həˈdaməˈsi aˈɽɐd̮ʑə louse jɩm nəˈma ɭɛˈma iˈmɤd̮ʑi yɩm dog waɲa wəˈɲa; wɛˈɲa wəˈɲa wɛˈɲa wañə wɛˈɲa pig han jɛˈnə jɛˈnɤ jɛˈnɤ han jɛˈnə bird ˈjaʷər jauˈr̥ɷ; jauˈtʰɷ jauˈt͑u jauˈthə yawʌř jauˈr̥u; jauˈthu egg jaur mɩntɕ ˈjautʰumuˈsi jauˈt͑umuˈsi məntʸ blood haɲ geˈja aˈt͑aɤi gaˈja bone jantʰ joˈdu jɔˈdu jɛˈdə skin jɩmaɤ wɨɲ ɽəˈxa ɭIˈk͑a wɩˈɲi wəñ Iˈda breast kau aˈu aˈu aˈhu tree bɨ məˈna muˈna mɤˈna bï man ˈnabʌ naˈba naˈba naˈba nʌmbə woˈdu woman mʌ jaˈma jəˈma məˈgə mʌg jamˈwa sun naijʌ ɽəˈma nuˈma ɽəˈma naiyə moon r̥̃ʌn tsoxɷˈno sɔkᵡɷˈnə sɔˈkɷnə hřawən water ɾ̥aˈbʌ gɯ gɯ gɯ hřʌmbə fire ɾ̥ᵼn ɲabɯ; ɲabu ɲaˈbu ɲaˈbɤ hřən ᵽin stone ɾ̥ɩgɨ ɽɩˈgə ɭɨˈgə ɽɩˈgə hřəŋk ɽɩˈgə road, path ganɨmϕ ˈsaba ʥɩmur̥əmam ˈdᴶɩmɷtʰɩ ˈdiədə anəmbi name hʌmpʰ mɛˈi aˈt̮ɕaβəde nabamɩˈhe yɩmpʰ eat nɨmˈda jaˈd̮ʑi ja⋅ˈdᴶɩmɩnə ˌmoməˈdɛɽə one waɲɩŋˈgeϕ joɽoˈdə ˈjɔ⋅ɤɔdə aˈgə paŋɛmp two jɩˈmag ˈjɩŋgʷʌ janˈdɛɽimi ˈjadaɤɩn ˌhəgəˈnaβəmaˈɨ mʌs

See also Upper Yuat languages

References

External links Piawi languages database at TransNewGuinea.org