Region Northern New Guinea ISO 639-3 kxa | Native speakers 3,200 (2000 census) Glottolog kair1263 | |
Language family Austronesian
Malayo-Polynesian
Oceanic
Western Oceanic
Schouten
Kairiru–Manam
Kairiru
Kairiru | ||
Kairiru is one of three Kairiru languages spoken mainly on Kairiru and Mushu islands and in several coastal villages on the mainland between Cape Karawop and Cape Samein near Wewak in East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea.
Pronouns and person markers
One remarkable feature of the pronoun system of Kairiru is that it appears to have lost the distinction between 1st person inclusive and exclusive pronouns throughout its affix paradigms, but then recreated inclusive forms in its independent pronouns by combining 1st person and 2nd person forms along the lines of Tok Pisin yumi (< yu + mi). The inclusive-exclusive distinction is almost universal among Austronesian languages but generally lacking in Papuan languages.
References
Kairiru language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA