Abau language
# Abau language

Abau is a Papuan language spoken in southern Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea, primarily along the border with Indonesia.

In 2002, there were estimated to be between 4,500 and 5,000 speakers, and this number does not appear to have declined since the first accurate count in the 1970s.

Abau is reported to have whistled speech.

## Phonology

Abau has the simplest phonemic inventory in the Sepik language family.

## Pronouns

Pronouns are:

    sgdupl 1 ha ~ hanhrorhrom 2 hwon ~ hun hoh hom 3m hiy ~ hi 3f hok

The dual and plural numbers only distinguish between first person and non-first person. Also, the third-person gender distinction exists only for the singular, but not the dual or plural forms.

## Noun classes

Abau noun classes are:

    Abau noun classes classformal markersemantics class 1pruhuman, spirits class 2k(a)-animals and default class 3nasmall objects with some volume class 4s(i)-flat surface objects class 5pilong thin objects class 6ugeographical locations class 7iflat objects with little volume class 8ricertain types of trees class 9ein(d)-bundles of long uncut items class 10reiktemporal class 11hnawbundles of long cut items class 12houk-part of a long object

Nouns can take on different class affixes depending on the physical characteristics being emphasized. Examples:

### su ‘coconut’

* su pi-ron /coconut class.5-one/ ‘a coconut palm’
* su ka-mon /coconut class.2-one/ ‘a coconut’

### pey ‘sugarcane’

* pey pi-ron /sugarcane class.5-one/ ‘one stalk of uncut sugarcane’
* pey houk-mon /sugarcane class.12-one/ ‘one piece of sugarcane’
* pey eind-mon /sugarcane class.9-one/ ‘bundle of stored stalks of sugarcane’
* pey hnaw-mon /sugarcane class.11-one/ ‘one bundle of sugarcane ready for transport’

Like most other Sepik languages, Abau overtly marks grammatical gender (see Sepik languages#Gender). The same object can be classified as either masculine or feminine, depending on the physical characteristics intended for emphasis. Example:

### youk ‘paddle’

* youk se ‘paddle M.DAT’ (focuses on the length of the paddle)
* youk ke ‘paddle F.DAT’ (focuses on the flat nature of the two-dimensional paddle blade)

## Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Foley (2005) and Laycock (1968), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

    glossAbau head makwe ear nwek eye nane; nanɛ nose kasan tooth nas tongue sane; sanɛ leg sune; sunɛ louse mapru dog nwɔf; nwɔhɔ pig fwok bird ahnɛ egg ne blood nyoh bone ayo; i skin ohi breast mu tree no; nɔw man lu; or; ur woman sa sun e; ey moon yen; yeny water fu; hu fire ya stone məny name uru eat ra one mun; rin two pris
