Rawa language

Rawa (Erawa, Erewa, Raua) is one of the Finisterre languages of Papua New Guinea. The two dialects, Rawa and Karo, are on opposite sides of the Finisterre Range.

Rawa
Karo
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Morobe Province
Native speakers	(12,000 cited 1998)
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Finisterre–Huon Finisterre Gusap–Mot Rawa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rwo
Glottolog	rawa1267

Names

The alternate names for Rawa are Erawa, Erewa, Raua and Karo.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
Fricative			s			h
Rhotic			r
Approximant	lateral		l
	central	w		j

• Voiceless stops /p, t, k/ are heard as voiced stops [b, d, ɡ] in the Karo dialect.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
High-mid	e		o
Low-mid			ɔ
Low		a

External links

• Reference Grammar of the Karo/Rawa Language (PDF).