1. Welcome to the Kewabi (Aliya) language Presentation…………..
Mendi – Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.
Wanpis Pokea,
B/Ed Graduate, University of Goroka

2. Introduction
The Kewabi (Aliya) language is one of the small languages spoken in Papua New Guinea.
It is spoken by almost 1000 people living in the remote parts of Southern Highlands Province, especially in the Kagua/ Erave electorate.
This presentation will focus on the basic grammatical features of the Kewabi language including phonology, morphology and syntax.

3. Source: Ethnologue.com

4. 1. Phonology 1.1. Consonants / l/ as in lapo 'two'
The Kewabi language has the following consonants.
/ l/ as in lapo 'two'
/m/ as in musa 'to lift it up'
/k/ as in kalu 'head'
/n/ as in mena 'pig'
/p/ as in paita 'to sleep'
/r/ as in rara 'medicine leaf'
/w/ as in wasa 'to look for'
/s/ as in papasi 'kinship term'
/b/ as in banapa 'lets go'
/d/ as in dia 'no'

5. 1.2. Vowels FRONT CENTRAL BACK / i / ipa 'water' /u/ musa ‘lift it up'
HIGH
/ i /
ipa 'water'
/u/
musa ‘lift it up'
MID
/ ɛ /
ame 'brother'
/o/
popo ‘steam’
LOW
/e/
keke 'tongue'
kebo ‘big'
/a/
apa ‘father’

6. 1.3. Length.
The vowels of monosyllabic words are always phonetically long:
/saa/ ‘put it’,
/i/ ‘faeces’;
/o/ ‘scabs’;
/u/ ‘sleep’.

7. 1.4. Syllable structure In the Kewabi language, the syllable patterns are V, VV, CV, and CVV. E.g. V u 'sleep' a.ka 'teeth' a.do.a 'to wait‘ VV ai.pa 'native salt‘,ai.na ‘related brothers’ CV pu 'go‘/Urine’ pi.ki 'center post' CVV pea 'to make' ka.mea 'to smell'

8. 1.5. Suprasegmentals (stress)
In the Kewabi language, different syllables can be stressed. There is no fixed stress.
Examples;
1st Syllable = pi-ra “ means sit down”
2nd Syllable = la-me-ya ‘ means they being talking
Final Syllable = a-ne-pu-li ‘where are you going’?

9. 2. Morphology Kewabi morphemes can be divided into Root morphemes;
e.g. anda ‘ to see’ (present tense)
Derivational morpheme,
e.g. le-anda (eyeglass)
Inflectional;
e.g. anda-lo ‘have seen’ (present Perfect tense)

10. By far the most frequent types of affixes in Kewabi are prefixes and suffixes.
E.g. le-anda, anda-lo
The Kewabi language does not have infixes, circumfixes or reduplication.

11. 3. Syntax 3.1. Verb classes There are four verb classes in Kewabi
The verb classes are determined by the shape of the V stem:
Class I: Va ada ‘to see’
Class II: Vla pola ‘to crack’
Class III: Vtya/Vra; patya ‘to sleep’
pira ‘to sit down’
Class IV: Vaa rumaa ‘to distribute’

12. The Kewabi language has an SOV structure.
ama nana ripina
mother child hold
S O V
'the mother holds the child'

13. Pronoun number person gender 1. Personal pronouns subject object
Kewabi
singular
1st
male/female I me Ni
2nd
you Ne
3rd
male he
him
Nipi
female
she
her
plural we us
Naa
male/female/
they
them
Nimu

14. 2. Possessive pronouns number person gender subject object Possessive
Kewabi
singular
1st
male/female I me
My/Mine
Ni nei
2nd
you
yours
Ne nei
3rd
male he
him
his
Ipi nei
female
she
her
hers
plural we us
Ours
Na nai
Yours
Ne nai
male/female/neuter
they
them
Theirs
Imu nei

15. Tenses There are four tenses in the dialect: 1. Present Tense
Na-lo. ‘I am eating.’
2. Future Tense
Na-lua ‘I will eat.’
3. Past Tenses
Na-wo. ‘I just ate.’ immediate past tense
Na-su. ‘I ate long time ago.’ remote past tense

16. Numerals
The Kewabi language can be counted using base -5 numeral system.
For example;
Numeral in English Translation in Kewabi
‘egali’
‘lapo’
‘repo’
‘mala’
‘su’
‘ki menda na egali’

17. ‘ki menda na lapo’
‘ki menda na repo’
‘ki menda na mala’
‘ki lapo’
‘ki lapo na egali’
‘ki lapo na lapo’
‘ki lapo na repo’
‘ki lapo an mala’

18. Conclusion
The Kewabi (Aliya) language is too isolated, and it has therefore not been described by any linguists.
More research needs to be done on the Kewabi language.
Reference
hpp//www. Ethnologue.com

19. Thank you for your
attention!
Any questions?