Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Awiyaana (Awíyááná, Auyana) is spoken by approximately 4,500 people (1973) living in the Kainantu subdistrict of Papua New Guinea's Eastern Highlands Province. Awiyaana is spoken in two dialects, the central dialect, including Asempa, Arora and Kosena villages, and the Kawaina village dialect in the southwest. The people of Kosena (population 350, 1973) in the far northwest, geographically separated from the others, migrated from Arora in recent times. Awiyaana is closely related to Usarufa, but the two are not mutually intelligible (McKaughan 1973: 179, McKaughan and Marks 1973: 181.)
There are two dialects of Awiyaana as follows:
Awiyaana
Kawaina
Asempa-Kosena (Central Awiyaana)
The central dialect includes the villages of Asempa, Arora and Kosena (McKaughan 1973: 179.) McKaughan (1964: 99-101, 1973: 695-698) calculates lexicostatistical resemblances between three Auyana villages as follows:
| Kawaina | Kosena | Asempa | |
| Kawaina | — | 93.9 | 91.9 |
| Kosena | 93.9 | — | 97.9 |
| Asempa | 91.9 | 97.9 | — |
Capell (1948-1949: 350-354) pronouns and 115 comparative terms for Forei
McKaughan (1964: 98-121) 546 comparative terms for Auyana of Asempa village, reprinted in McKaughan ed. (1973: 694-738)
Bee (1965: 1-37) 60 Auyana words including reflexes of proto-Kainantu, reprinted in McKaughan ed. (1973: 739-768)
McKaughan and Marks (1973: 181-189) phonology and morphology of Kosena village
McKaughan, compiler (1973: 324-389) Auyana texts from Asempa
Kerr (1973: 769-799) 35 Auyana kin terms from Asempa and Kosena including reflexes of proto-Kainantu
Marks (1974) grammar of Kosena
Marks (1975) dictionary of Kosena
Marks (1992) sketch phonology of Awiyaana and Kosena
Marks (n.d.) Kosena body parts
Marks (n.d.) Kosena final verb morphology
Marks (1992) gives 14 consonants and 6 vowels for Awiyaana and Kosena as follows:
| m | n | |||
| p | t | k | ʔ | |
| b | d | g | ||
| ɸ | s | |||
| ɾ | ||||
| w | j |
| i | u | |
| e: | ɐ | o: |
| ɑ: |
(n.b. Marks gives /ɐ/ as /ʌ/)
This is a substantial revision of the system given in McKaughan and Marks (1973: 181-183.)
The labial fricative is realized as bilabial [ɸ] in Awiyaana of Aasempa and as voiced labiodental [v] in Kosena.
Each syllable takes one of two tones, low or high.
[under construction]
Marks (1974: 62, McKaughan and Marks 1973: 185) …
McKaughan and Marks (1973: 185, Marks 1974: 15-16) …
[under construction]
Marks (n.d.) …