Wiru language

Wiru reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are: • ibi(ni) ‘name’ < *imbi • nomo ‘louse’ < *niman • laga ‘ashes’ < *la(ŋg,k)a • tokene ‘moon’ < *takVn[V] • mane ‘instructions, incantations’ < *mana • keda ‘heavy’ < *ke(nd,n)a • mo- ‘negative prefix’ < *ma- == Phonology ==

Consonants • can be heard as aspirated in word-initial position and can also be heard with slight friction and voicing, in word-medial positions. • can be heard as when preceded by and followed by or . It is heard as in all other intervocalic environments. Vowels ==Pronouns==

Trans–New Guinea–like pronouns are no 1sg (< *na) and ki-wi 2pl, ki-ta 2du (< *ki). == Syntax ==

Wiru has a general noun-modifying clause construction. In this construction, a noun can be modified by a clause that immediately precedes it. The noun may, but need not, correspond to an argument of the modifying clause. Such constructions can be used to express a wide range of semantic relationships between clause and noun. The follow examples all use the same noun-modifying clause construction: The noun-modifying clause construction imposes a falling tone on the head noun. That is, no matter what the lexical tone of the noun that is being modified is, it takes on a high-low tone pattern when it is modified in a noun-modifying clause construction. ==Vocabulary==

The following basic vocabulary words are from Franklin (1973, 1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: ==References==