Piame language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Piame
Biami
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionEast Sepik Province
EthnicityHewa
Native speakers
(Less than 100 cited 1988)[1]
Sepik
Language codes
ISO 639-3pin
Glottologpiam1243
ELPLua error in Module:Endangered_Languages_Project at line 21: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).

Piame, or Biami, is a Sepik language, which in 1988 was spoken in the village of Piame in northwestern Papua New Guinea.[2]: 249 

Relationship to other languages

[edit | edit source]

Piame is closely related to Niksek, with cognate percentages ranging from 44% to 53% for the different Niksek dialects.[2]: 249 

Sociolinguistics

[edit | edit source]

In 1988, it was spoken by less than a hundred people, in the single village of Piame.[2]: 249  The village was primarily monolingual. Two or three men had begun to learn Tok Pisin, the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea.[2]: 254 

The language is today described as moribund.[3][4]

Vocabulary

[edit | edit source]

The table below is a sample of words in Piame:[2]: 261 

Piame English
pasikofi afternoon
bawe arrow
mokuawo baby
mekia back
wɔřou cassowary
a yopakaři chin
yabi dog
peni ear
yelia kaia egg
wauwuo fat
aise father
mɔmiyaři məməni moku'awo girl
yelia kowane good
kouřinobo hair
nɔti hand
u'kwəti knee
misaři knife
mekwa leaf
yelia meisa long
məmini'nɔni man
ake/kɔřisib̵ab̵e many
ka'lami neck
ake/akutu new
akelmeisi old
mekwa one
a'kaifɔ/fɔ pig
nou rain
wamo rat
kařinei sand
yelia nɔpo short
fɔ'yəni tail
sawi taro
you'wei vine
akaipəsi wallaby
a'sei water
kařu yam
nɔifi yesterday

References

[edit | edit source]
  1. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  2. ^ a b c d e Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).