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.

!

! Front

! Back

|-

! Close

|

|

|-

! Close-mid

|

|

|-

! Open

|

|

|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"

|-

|+Consonants

:{|

! colspan="2" | !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural

|-

! colspan="2" | First

| ha ~ han || hror || hrom

|-

! colspan="2" | Second

| hwon ~ hun

| rowspan="3" | hoh

| rowspan="3" | hom

|-

! rowspan="2" | Third

!Masculine

| hiy ~ hi

|-

!Feminine

| 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:

Vocabulary

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

:{| class="wikitable sortable"

! gloss !! Abau

|-

! 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

|}

References

  • Papuaweb - a collection of source materials on Abau (PDF format)
  • Abau Grammar - paper by Arjen Lock on grammar of the language (PDF format)
  • Phonology Essentials - Abau Language - paper by Arjen Lock on phonology of the language (PDF format)
  • Abau basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
  • OLAC resources in and about the Abau language
  • Listen to a sample of Abau from Global Recordings Network
  • World Atlas of Language Structures information on Abau