| Waskia | |
|---|---|
| Region | Papua New Guinea |
Native speakers | 20,000 (2007) [1] |
Trans–New Guinea?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wsk |
| Glottolog | wask1241 |
Waskia (Vaskia, Woskia) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. [2] It is spoken on half of Karkar Island, and a small part of the shore on the mainland, by 20,000 people; language use is vigorous. The Waskia share their island with speakers of Takia, an Oceanic language which has been restructured under the influence of Waskia, which is the inter-community language. Waskia has been documented extensively by Malcolm Ross and is being further researched by Andrew Pick.
Waskia is spoken in Tokain ( 4°42′56″S145°38′02″E / 4.715575°S 145.633995°E ), a village in Malas ward, Sumgilbar Rural LLG on the coast of mainland New Guinea, and on Karkar Island, with the island and mainland varieties being lexically divergent from each other. [3] [4]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | s | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||
| Trill | r | ||||
/ɡ/ can be pronounced as a fricative [ɣ] when in intervocalic positions. [5]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
Below are some Waskia lexical forms compared with Amako and Proto-Northern Adelbert. [2] : 473
| gloss | Waskia | Amako | Proto-Northern Adelbert |
|---|---|---|---|
| hornbill | baram | bar | *baram |
| pig | buruk | bur | *buruk |
| sit | – | beng- | *bug- |
| year | barat | – | *barat |
| skin | guang | – | *guaŋ |
| thick | gurum | uŋur | *gurum |
| liver | gomang | gom | *gemaŋ |
| turn | gira- | girka- | *girik- |
| breadfruit | – | kid | *kidar |
| banana | – | kud | *kudi |
| lime | kaur | ka | *kapur |
| day, sun | kam | – | *kam |
| nape | komang | kumandup | *kumaŋ |
| plate | tawir | taw | *tabir |
| LOC | te | te | *te |
| rain | tiwik | tiv | *t(e/i)ik |