| Waris | |
|---|---|
| Region | Sandaun Province,Papua New Guinea; Waris District,Keerom Regency,Papua province,Indonesia |
Native speakers | 2,500 (2008)[1] |
Border
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wrs |
| Glottolog | wari1266 |
| ELP | Waris |
| Coordinates:3°17′41″S141°04′23″E / 3.294675°S 141.073027°E /-3.294675; 141.073027 (Wasengla Catholic Mission) | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Waris orWalsa is aPapuan language of northernNew Guinea. There are about 2,500 native speakers. It uses the Latin writing system. The language featuresmonophthong,diphthong, andtriphthong vowels.
Waris is spoken by about 2,500 people aroundWasengla (3°17′41″S141°04′23″E / 3.294675°S 141.073027°E /-3.294675; 141.073027 (Wasengla Catholic Mission)), Doponendi ward,Walsa Rural LLG,Sandaun Province,Papua New Guinea, and also by about 1,500 across the border inWaris District, Keerom Regency in theIndonesian province ofPapua.[1][2]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | ||
| Mid | ə | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Near-open | æ | ||
| Open | a | ɒ |
| Vi | Vɛ | Vɑ | Vɒ | Vɔ | Vu | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iV | iɑ | |||||
| ɛV | ɛɔ | ɛu | ||||
| ɑV | ɑi | ɑɔ | ||||
| ɒV | ɒi | |||||
| ɔV | ɔi | ɔɑ | ||||
| uV | ui | uɛ | uɑ | uɒ |
There are twotriphthongs,/ɔɑi/ and/uɛu/.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Stop | Voiceless | p | t | k | |
| Prenasalised | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | β | s | x | ||
| Liquid | trill | r | |||
| lateral | l | ||||
| Semivowel | w | j | |||
Classifier prefixes in Waris attach to verbs, and are determined via the physical properties of the object noun phrase being referred to. Many of them have parallels with independent verb roots, which may well be where they had originated from. Examples include:[3]
wonda
netbag
wonda ka-mmwan-vra-ho-o
netbag 1-DATCLF-get-BEN-IMP
‘Give me a netbag.’
nenas
pineapple
nenas ka-mli-ra-ho-o
pineapple 1-DATCLF-get-BEN-IMP
‘Give me a pineapple.’
nelus
greens
nelus ka-mninge-ra-ho-o
greens 1-DATCLF-get-BEN-IMP
‘Give me some greens’
Many of these prefixes have lexical parallels with verb roots. The list of classifier prefixes is:[3]
| classifier prefix | semantic category | verb root parallel |
|---|---|---|
| mwan- | soft pliable objects like net bags, skirts, bark mats | |
| li- | fruits like pineapples, ears of corn or pandanus | le- ‘cut off oblong fruit’ |
| vela- | objects found inside a container | vela- ‘remove’ |
| put- | spherical objects, commonly fruits | puet- ‘pick fruit’ |
| ninge- | food cooked and wrapped | ninge- ‘tie up’ |
| vet- | food removed from fire without wrapping | |
| lɛ- | leaf-like objects with no or soft stem | |
| pola- | leaf-like objects with hard stem | |
| ih- | grainy materials | ih- ‘remove grainy material from a container’ |
| tuvv- | pieces cut from longer lengths | tuvva- ‘chop into lengths’ |
| kov- | lengths of vine | kovva- ‘cut off’ |
