| Pyu | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea Indonesia |
| Region | |
Native speakers | 250 (2012 census)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pby |
| Glottolog | pyuu1245 |
| ELP | Pyu |
  Pyu | |
| Coordinates:4°01′09″S141°02′01″E / 4.019117°S 141.033561°E /-4.019117; 141.033561 (Biake 2) | |
Pyu is alanguage isolate spoken inPapua New Guinea andIndonesia. As of 2000, the language had about 100 speakers in Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Biake No. 2 village (4°01′09″S141°02′01″E / 4.019117°S 141.033561°E /-4.019117; 141.033561 (Biake 2)) of Biake ward,Green River Rural LLG inSandaun Province.[2][3] Additionally, there are about 150 speakers in Batom District,Pegunungan Bintang Regency,Highland Papua, Indonesia.[4][5]
Timothy Usher links the Pyu language to its neighbors, theLeft May languages and theAmto–Musan languages, in as Arai–Samaia stock.[6]
An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[7] found lexical similarities withKimki. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.
Based on limited lexical evidence, Pyu had been linked to the putativeKwomtari–Fas family, but that family is apparently spurious and Foley (2018) notes that Pyu and Kwomtari are highly divergent from each other. Some similar pronouns are found in bothKwomtari and Pyu:[8]
| pronoun | Pyu | Kwomtari |
|---|---|---|
| ‘1PL, we’ | məla | mena |
| ‘2SG, you (sg)’ | no | une |
| ‘3, he/she/it/they’ | na | nane |
The following basic vocabulary words are from Conrad & Dye (1975)[9] and Voorhoeve (1975),[10] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[11]
| gloss | Pyu |
|---|---|
| head | uǏiʔ; wiri |
| hair | Ǐɩsiʔ; lisi |
| ear | kweɛ |
| eye | bəmeʔ; pɛmɛʔɛ |
| nose | tɛpʌǏi |
| tooth | rəne |
| tongue | asaguʔ |
| louse | ni; niʔ |
| dog | naguʔ; nakwu |
| pig | we; wɛʔ |
| bird | maǏuǏiʔ; maru |
| egg | Ǐio taʔ; taʔ |
| blood | ɛmiʔ; kami |
| bone | bəli; bɩǏiʔ |
| skin | kagole; kʌkʌǏɛʔ |
| breast | ib̶iʔ |
| tree | ga; ka |
| man | tali; taliʔ |
| woman | Ǐomæʔ |
| sun | agwiʔ |
| water | ʔiʔ; yi |
| fire | kamie; kʌmæ |
| stone | siri; sɩliʔ |
| road, path | ʔonæ; ʔonɛ |
| eat | waŋgɛʔ |
| one | tefiye; tɛᵽiɛʔ |
| two | kasi |