Awar

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Awar is spoken by 1,100 people (2000) living in three villages, Awar, Nubia and Sisimangum, around Hansa Bay on the north coast of the Bogia subdistrict of Papua New Guinea's Madang province. According to Levy, there are two dialects, one spoken in Awar village and the other in Nubia and Simamangum. The name Awar is used for the language because it is the largest village and because its variety is considered to be authoritative (Z'graggen 1971: 75, Levy 2002: 14.)

Capell (1951-1952: 135-138) sketch description of and (pp. 198-200) 74 comparative terms for Nubia village

Z'graggen (1969, 1971) …

Z'graggen (1972) comparative vocabulary of Awar

Levy (2002) grammar of Awar of Awar village

Foley (2005: 116-118) 62 comparative terms for Awar

Levy (2002: 17-92) gives 20 consonants and 7 vowels for Awar as follows:

Vowels are further distinguished by the presence or absence of nasalization:

Non-stop /v/ is a labiodental fricative. Non-stop /ɽ/ is a postalveolar retroflexed flap.

Glottal stop /ʔ/ does not occur initially, or medially except when followed by another consonant in a cluster.

Only a restricted set of consonants occurs finally:

[under construction]

… diphthongs …

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Levy (2002: 184-190) gives Awar pronouns as follows:

The first and second person duals, which are regular reductions of Ramu Coast /*aŋga *oŋga/ respectively, are said to be distinguished by stress.

In addition to these forms are /nda/, used for the third person plural with the sense of “those of … [e.g. a clan],” and the reciprical /neni/, glossed as “each other.”

Like other Ramu River languages, Awar nominals are marked for both plural and dual numbers, the most common suffixes being as follows (Levy 2002: 112-119):

[under construction]

… (Levy 2002: 197-232):

[under construction]

… (Levy 2002: 166-168):

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