Kbm

Also Known As: Kaiwa Description: Iwal (also called Kaiwa from Jabêm Kai Iwac 'Iwac highlanders') is an Austronesian language spoken by about 1,900 people from nine villages in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea (Cobb & Wroge 1990). Although it appears most closely related to the South Huon Gulf languages, it is the most conservative member of its subgroup. Iwal distinguishes 5 vowels and 16 consonants. Unlike most of its neighboring languages, it distinguishes the lateral /l/ from the trill /r/, the latter derived from earlier *s, as in aru from Proto-Oceanic (POc) *qasu 'smoke', ruru- from POc *susu 'breast', and ur from POc *qusan 'rain'. Otherwise it appears to be the most phonologically conservative language in the South Huon Gulf chain (see Ross 1988:154-160). It has retained POc *t as /t/ (not /l/ or /y/) and POc *mw as /mw/ (not /my/ or /ny/), as in mwat 'snake' from POc *mwata. Iwal deictics correlate with first, second, and third person, each of which has a long and a short form. The latter appear to be anaphoric in usage. Deictics also serve to bracket relative clauses: ete/ebe ... ok/nok/nik. By far the most common brackets are ebe ... ok, but if the information in the clause is associated with either..... full article at Wikipedia Location of Iwal Language Speakers http://llmap.org/languages/kbm/static_map.png?width=400&height=300&kilroywashere=.png

Overview Main Country: Papua New Guinea Spoken In: Regions: Oceania ISO 639-3 Code: kbm Classification Taxonomy All Languages   Austronesian Group     Malayo-Polynesian Group       Central-Eastern Group         Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Group           Oceanic Group             Western Oceanic Group               North New Guinea Group                 Huon Gulf Group                   South Huon Gulf Group                     Kaiwa Group                       Iwal Language