| Usku | |
|---|---|
| Afra | |
| Region | Usku village,Senggi District,Keerom Regency,Papua,Indonesia |
Native speakers | 20 to 160 (2007)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ulf |
| Glottolog | usku1243 |
| ELP | Afra |
 Usku is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Usku, orAfra, is a nearlyextinct and poorly documentedPapuan language spoken by 20 or more people, mostly adults, inUsku village,Senggi District,Keerom Regency,Papua,Indonesia.
Wurm (1975) placed it as an independent branch ofTrans–New Guinea, butRoss (2005) could not find enough evidence to classify it. Usher (2020) found that it was one of theWest Pauwasi languages, though divergent from the other two branches of that family.[2] Foley (2018) classifies Usku as alanguage isolate.[3]
An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[4] found lexical similarities between Usku andKaure. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.
Basic vocabulary of Usku from Im (2006), quoted byFoley (2018):[5][3]
| gloss | Usku |
|---|---|
| 'bird' | rkwe |
| 'blood' | misie |
| 'bone' | kra |
| 'breast' | mi |
| 'ear' | bekria |
| 'eat' | nggreka |
| 'egg' | kri |
| 'eye' | nifi |
| 'fire' | yo |
| 'give' | roti |
| 'go' | rifri |
| 'ground' | taʔ |
| 'hair' | klekondia |
| 'hear' | yukri |
| 'I' | o |
| 'leg' | nafu |
| 'louse' | nimi |
| 'man' | na |
| 'moon' | menggrine |
| 'name' | təkwar |
| 'one' | kuskafi |
| 'road, path' | tra |
| 'see' | fra |
| 'sky' | mumgre |
| 'stone' | pani |
| 'sun' | winene |
| 'tongue' | bra |
| 'tooth' | ninggre |
| 'tree' | ninani |
| 'two' | narse |
| 'water' | a/æ |
| 'we' | no |
| 'woman' | ria |
| 'you (sg)' | po |
| 'you (pl)' | so |
The following basic vocabulary words are from the Trans-New Guinea database:[6]
| gloss | Usku |
|---|---|
| head | flekle |
| hair | flekle-kunda |
| ear | beikli |
| eye | nifi |
| tooth | neŋkle |
| tongue | bra |
| leg | nafu |
| louse | nimi |
| bird | lokwe |
| egg | kle |
| blood | kla; mise |
| bone | kla; mi |
| skin | ninje; ninye |
| breast | kiombra |
| tree | weli |
| man | mekenja; mekenya |
| woman | jomia |
| sun | nei |
| moon | meŋgerne |
| water | ei |
| fire | jo; yo |
| stone | pane |
| road, path | tra |
| eat | kepo |
| one | kisifaini |
| two | narna |
Usku morphology as inferred by Foley (2018):[3]
Word order in Usku is SOV.[3]
Some of the few documented sentences in Usku are:[3]
e
wang
money
o
ai
father
se
roti-mo
give-TNS
e wang o ai se roti-mo
3 money 1SG father DAT give-TNS
‘She gave money to my father.’
e
kompong
village
se
rifli-mo
go-TNS
e kompong se rifli-mo
3 village DAT go-TNS
‘He went to the village.’
kɨnmar
person
kompong
village
e
duar-mo
come-TNS
kɨnmar kompong e duar-mo
person village ABL come-TNS
‘That person came from the village.’
kɨnmar
person
ya-mu
bite-TNS
kɨnmar mra-mu ya-mu
person dog-ERG/FOC? bite-TNS
‘The dog bit that person.’
