Kairiru language

Kairiru is one of three Kairiru languages spoken mainly on Kairiru and Mushu islands and in several coastal villages on the mainland between Cape Karawop and Cape Samein near Wewak in East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea.

Morphology[]

Pronouns and person markers[]

One remarkable feature of the pronoun system of Kairiru is that it appears to have lost the distinction between 1st person inclusive and exclusive pronouns throughout its affix paradigms, but then recreated inclusive forms in its independent pronouns by combining 1st person and 2nd person forms along the lines of Tok Pisin yumi (< yu + mi). The inclusive-exclusive distinction is almost universal among Austronesian languages but generally lacking in Papuan languages.

Free pronouns[]

Genitive pronouns[]

Possessive suffixes on inalienable nouns[]

Subject prefixes on verbs[]

Object suffixes on verbs[]

References[]

• Wivell, Richard (1981). Kairiru grammar. M.A. thesis, University of Auckland.

External links[]

• Kairiru Grammar