Keuw language
{{Short description|Language in Indonesia}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Keuw
|altname=Kehu
|states=Papua
|region=Wapoga River, in the foothills inland from Cenderawasih Bay: Wapoga District, Nabire Regency, Papua province
|speakers=200
|date=2007
|ref=e18
|familycolor=Papuan
|fam1=Lakes Plain?
|fam2=Wapoga
|iso3=khh
|glotto=kehu1238
|glottorefname=Kehu
}}
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. [http://www.langlxmelanesia.com/8%20kamholz243-268.pdf The Keuw isolate: Preliminary materials and classification] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150529163152/http://www.langlxmelanesia.com/8%20kamholz243-268.pdf |date=2015-05-29 }}. 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."[http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/papuanlanguages/2007-May/000142.html 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.{{cite book |last=Palmer |first=Bill |editor1-last=Palmer |editor1-first=Bill |date=2018 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |chapter=Language families of the New Guinea Area |series= The World of Linguistics |volume=4 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=1–20 |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7}}
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.{{cite book |last=Foley |first=William A. |editor1-last=Palmer |editor1-first=Bill |date=2018 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |chapter=The languages of Northwest New Guinea |series= The World of Linguistics |volume=4 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=433–568 |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7}}
=Consonants=
Keuw has ten consonants.
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |
| colspan="2" |
! Labial ! Alveolar ! Palatal ! Velar |
|---|
| rowspan="2" | Plosive
! {{small|voiceless}} | {{IPAlink|p}} || {{IPAlink|t}} || || {{IPAlink|k}} |
| {{small|voiced}}
| {{IPAlink|b}} || {{IPAlink|d}} || || {{IPAlink|ɡ}} |
| colspan="2" | Fricative
| || {{IPAlink|s}} || || |
| colspan="2" | Liquid
| || {{IPAlink|l}} || || |
| colspan="2" | Semivowel
| {{IPAlink|w}} || || {{IPAlink|j}} || |
=Vowels=
=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.
{{interlinear|indent=3
|kómúul-yò yúmséet-yò núu-nô
|boar-? cassava-? eat-?
|‘The boar ate the cassava.’}}
Basic vocabulary
Basic vocabulary of Keuw from Kamholz (2012), quoted in Foley (2018):
:
| {{table}}
|+ 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:{{Cite web |url=http://transnewguinea.org/language/keuw |title=TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea |last=Greenhill |first=Simon |date=2016 |access-date=2020-11-05}}
:
| 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
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://lautgesetz.com/keuw/ Keuw field recordings]
{{Papuan languages}}
Category:Endangered languages of Asia
Category:Language isolates of New Guinea