Duwet language

Duwet
Guwot, Waing
Region	New Guinea
Native speakers	400 (2011)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic Huon Gulf Markham Lower Markham Busu Duwet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gve
Glottolog	duwe1237

Duwet, also known as Guwot or Waing, is an aberrant member of the Busu subgroup of Lower Markham languages in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Duwet is spoken by about 400 people and appears to have been heavily influenced by its neighboring Nabak language (also called Wain) of the Papuan Trans–New Guinea languages.

Morphology

Pronouns and person markers

Subject prefixes

Person	Singular –past	Singular +past	Plural –past	Plural +past
1st person	nga-	ngga-	manga-	manga-
2nd person	ngu-	nggu-	manga-	manga-
3rd person	ngi-	nggi-	ngi-	nggi-

Numerals

Traditional Duwet numerals include only three basic forms: 'one', 'two', and 'hand (= five)'.

Numeral	Term	Gloss
1	ta(gine)/ta(ine)	'one'
2	seik	'two'
3	seik mba ta	'two and one'
4	seik mba seik	'two and two'
5	lima-ngg	'hand-my'

References

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• Holzknecht, Susanne (2001). "Number and Person in the Duwet Language of Papua New Guinea." In Andrew Pawley, Malcolm Ross, and Darrell Tryon, eds., The Boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian Linguistics in Honour of Tom Dutton, 175-191. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.