Geographicdistribution: New Guinea | Glottolog: kiwa1251 | |
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Linguistic classification: Trans–New Guinea ?Kiwaian | ||
The Kiwaian languages form a branch of the Trans–New Guinea language family of New Guinea. They are a dialect cluster of half a dozen closely related languages. They are grammatically divergent from other Trans–New Guinea languages, and typically have singular, dual, trial, and plural pronouns.
Contents
Languages
Pronouns are,
None of these reflect proto-TNG pronouns. However, Kiwaian languages have basic TNG lexical words like body-part terms.
Classification
The Trans–New Guinea identity of Kiwaiian is supported by a relatively large number of basic lexical items. Ross (2005) tentatively linked Kiwaiian to the erstwhile language isolate Porome. However, the evidence is only two pronouns, and the connection has not been accepted by other researchers.
References
Kiwaian languages Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA