| Suabo | |
|---|---|
| Inanwatan | |
| Native to | Southwest Papua, Indonesia |
| Region | Inanwatan District,South Sorong Regency in theBird's Head Peninsula |
| Ethnicity | Inanwatan |
Native speakers | 800 (2004)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | szp |
| Glottolog | suab1238 |
| ELP | Suabo |
  Suabo  Suabo  Suabo | |
| Coordinates:2°05′S132°10′E / 2.08°S 132.16°E /-2.08; 132.16 | |
TheSuabo orInanwatan is a Papuan language ofSouthwest Papua. It is often classified in theSouth Bird's Head language family, but may alternatively form an independent language family together withDuriankere.
Inanwatan is primarily spoken in the village ofInanwatan,South Sorong Regency on the south coast of theBird's Head Peninsula, but also in the village ofSeget,Sorong Regency on the western tip of the peninsula, as well as by a community in the Jalan Ferry area of the city ofSorong.[2]
Inanwatan isendangered: de Vries reports in 2004 that it was mostly people over 50 years of age who speak it fluently, and that the newest generation do not know it. According to his estimate, Inanwatan has 800 or fewer speakers, out of an ethnic population of about 3,000.[1] The language is not a central component of the identity of the people, who identify more strongly with the smaller descent groups.[3]
The language is also known under the namesBira,Suabo,[1]Iagu andMirabo,[4][better source needed] while the Inanwatan themselves most commonly refer to it asnidáibo 'our language'.[5] It is most closely related to theDuriankari language.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pb | td | kg | ʔ⟨q⟩ | |
| Fricative | ɸ⟨f⟩ | s | |||
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Approximant | (w~β)⟨w⟩ | (r) | j⟨y⟩ |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
Additionally, the following diphthongs are present: /ai/, /ae/, /au/, /ao/, /ou/.
Stress is phonemic and unpredictable.[6]
Like theRomance languages, Inanwatan distinguishes masculine and femininegrammatical genders. Inanwatan masculine nouns end in thefront vowels -i and -e, and feminine nouns end in non-front vowels -u, -o, -a.[7]Maybrat, on the other hand, uses concord prefixes instead of suffixes to mark gender.[8]
Inanwatan nouns usually have lexically determined gender, but some of the nouns allow for choice of gender via varying gender suffixes:[9]
Inanwatan feminine forms are homophonous with plural forms, while masculine forms are distinct.[8]
