Keuw is spoken in a swampy lowland region along the Poronai River in Keuw village (kampung) of Wapoga District, Nabire Regency, Papua province, Indonesia. According to oral folklore, the Keuw were originally from Woisaru, and then moved to Sanawado, which may be locations in Wapoga District.[2]
Classification
Mark Donohue (2007) said that Kehu is "probably a Geelvink Bay language, but no one knows enough about those languages, systematically, to say this with confidence for [any of them] beyond Barapasi, T(ar)unggare and Bauzi."[3]
Timothy Usher (2018) classifies it as a Lakes Plain language, closest to Awera and Rasawa–Saponi. According to Foley, based on some lexical and phonological similarities, Keuw may possibly share a deep relationship with the Lakes Plain languages.[4] Palmer (2018) treats Keuw as a language isolate.[5]
Phonology
Phonology of Keuw from Kamholz (2012), quoted in Foley (2018):[6][4]
Keuw has contrastive tone. Some minimal pairs demonstrating phonemic tonal contrasts:
áalìyò ‘tongue’, áalíyò ‘house’
kíilyô ‘possum’, kíilyò ‘arrow’
úukyò ‘grandfather’, úunyô ‘woman’
Syntax
Keuw has SOV word order, as exemplified by the sentence below. The morphemic suffixes remain unglossed.[4]
kómúul-yò
boar-?
yúmséet-yò
cassava-?
núu-nô
eat-?
kómúul-yò yúmséet-yò núu-nô
boar-? cassava-? eat-?
‘The boar ate the cassava.’
Basic vocabulary
Basic vocabulary of Keuw from Kamholz (2012), quoted in Foley (2018):[6][4]
Keuw basic vocabulary
gloss
Keuw
‘bird’
páupǝn
‘blood’
kpíi
‘bone’
ntyéns
‘breast’
túulí
‘ear’
téemé
‘eat’
núu
‘egg’
bléemí
‘eye’
mlúul
‘fire’
núup
‘go’
páwì
‘ground’
píi
‘hair’
plíikd
‘head’
kpúunt
‘leg’
páud
‘louse (body)’
máa
‘louse (head)’
bréen
‘man’
méeli
‘moon’
dyúutǝn
‘one’
bíisìp
‘path, road’
ngkéempúkə
‘see’
líyè, tíyè, kúntáb
‘sky’
tpáapí
‘stone’
tóotí
‘sun’
tandən
‘tooth’
mée
‘tree’
kúd
‘two’
páid
‘water’
yél
‘woman’
úun
The following basic vocabulary words are from the Trans-New Guinea database:[7][6]
gloss
Keuw
head
kpúunt-yô
ear
téemé-yô
eye
mlúul-yô
nose
klókəә̀n-yô
tooth
mée-yô
tongue
áalì-yò
pig
kómúul-yò
egg
bléemí-yò
blood
kpíi-yò
bone
ntyéns-yô
skin
mpáakəә́t-yô
breast
túulí-yò
tree
kúd-yô
sky
tpáapí-yò
sun
táadəә́n-yô
moon
dyúutəә́n-yò
water
yél-yò
fire
núup-yò; óopí-yò
stone
tóotí-yò
road, path
ŋkéempúkəә̀-yô
eat
kéep-yô; núu-nô
one
bíisìp-yò
two
páid-yô
References
^Keuw at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^Kamholz, David. 2012. The Keuw isolate: Preliminary materials and classificationArchived 2015-05-29 at the Wayback Machine. In Harald Hammarström and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact, and classification of Papuan languages, 243–268. Special issue of Language and Linguistics in Melanesia. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
^ abcdFoley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.
^Palmer, Bill (2018). "Language families of the New Guinea Area". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 1–20. ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.
^ abcKamholz, David. 2012. The Keuw isolate: preliminary materials and classification. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia Special Issue: History, Contact and Classification of Papuan Languages: 243–268.