Usku language

Usku, or Afra, is a nearly extinct and poorly documented Papuan language spoken by 20 or more people, mostly adults, in Usku village, Senggi District, Keerom Regency, Papua, Indonesia.

Wurm (1975) placed it as an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea, but Ross (2005) could not find enough evidence to classify it. Usher (2020) found that it was one of the West Pauwasi languages, though divergent from the other two branches of that family. Foley (2018) classifies Usku as a language isolate.

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) found lexical similarities between Usku and Kaure. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

Basic vocabulary
Basic vocabulary of Usku from Im (2006), quoted by Foley (2018):



! gloss !! Usku
 * + Usku basic vocabulary
 * ‘bird’ || rkwe
 * ‘blood’ || misie
 * ‘bone’ || kra
 * ‘breast’ || mi
 * ‘ear’ || bekria
 * ‘eat’ || nggreka
 * ‘egg’ || kri
 * ‘eye’ || nifi
 * ‘fire’ || yo
 * ‘give’ || roti
 * ‘go’ || rifri
 * ‘ground’ || taʔ
 * ‘hair’ || klekondia
 * ‘hear’ || yukri
 * ‘I’ || o
 * ‘leg’ || nafu
 * ‘louse’ || nimi
 * ‘man’ || na
 * ‘moon’ || menggrine
 * ‘name’ || təkwar
 * ‘one’ || kuskafi
 * ‘road, path’ || tra
 * ‘see’ || fra
 * ‘sky’ || mumgre
 * ‘stone’ || pani
 * ‘sun’ || winene
 * ‘tongue’ || bra
 * ‘tooth’ || ninggre
 * ‘tree’ || ninani
 * ‘two’ || narse
 * ‘water’ || a/æ
 * ‘we’ || no
 * ‘woman’ || ria
 * ‘you (sg)’ || po
 * ‘you (pl)’ || so
 * }
 * ‘moon’ || menggrine
 * ‘name’ || təkwar
 * ‘one’ || kuskafi
 * ‘road, path’ || tra
 * ‘see’ || fra
 * ‘sky’ || mumgre
 * ‘stone’ || pani
 * ‘sun’ || winene
 * ‘tongue’ || bra
 * ‘tooth’ || ninggre
 * ‘tree’ || ninani
 * ‘two’ || narse
 * ‘water’ || a/æ
 * ‘we’ || no
 * ‘woman’ || ria
 * ‘you (sg)’ || po
 * ‘you (pl)’ || so
 * }
 * ‘tooth’ || ninggre
 * ‘tree’ || ninani
 * ‘two’ || narse
 * ‘water’ || a/æ
 * ‘we’ || no
 * ‘woman’ || ria
 * ‘you (sg)’ || po
 * ‘you (pl)’ || so
 * }
 * ‘we’ || no
 * ‘woman’ || ria
 * ‘you (sg)’ || po
 * ‘you (pl)’ || so
 * }
 * ‘you (pl)’ || so
 * }
 * }

The following basic vocabulary words are from the Trans-New Guinea database:


 * {| class="wikitable sortable"

! gloss !! Usku
 * head || flekle
 * hair || flekle-kunda
 * ear || beikli
 * eye || nifi
 * tooth || neŋkle
 * tongue || bra
 * leg || nafu
 * louse || nimi
 * bird || lokwe
 * egg || kle
 * blood || kla; mise
 * bone || kla; mi
 * skin || ninje; ninye
 * breast || kiombra
 * tree || weli
 * man || mekenja; mekenya
 * woman || jomia
 * sun || nei
 * moon || meŋgerne
 * water || ei
 * fire || jo; yo
 * stone || pane
 * road, path || tra
 * eat || kepo
 * one || kisifaini
 * two || narna
 * }
 * breast || kiombra
 * tree || weli
 * man || mekenja; mekenya
 * woman || jomia
 * sun || nei
 * moon || meŋgerne
 * water || ei
 * fire || jo; yo
 * stone || pane
 * road, path || tra
 * eat || kepo
 * one || kisifaini
 * two || narna
 * }
 * fire || jo; yo
 * stone || pane
 * road, path || tra
 * eat || kepo
 * one || kisifaini
 * two || narna
 * }
 * one || kisifaini
 * two || narna
 * }
 * two || narna
 * }

Morphology
Usku morphology as inferred by Foley (2018):


 * dative marker se
 * tense suffix -mu ~ -mo
 * allative postposition se
 * ablative e

Sentences
Word order in Usku is SOV.

Some of the few documented sentences in Usku are:

e wang o ai se roti-mo

3 money 1SG father DAT give-TNS

‘She gave money to my father.’

e kompong se rifli-mo

3 village DAT go-TNS

‘He went to the village.’

kɨnmar kompong e duar-mo

person village ABL come-TNS

‘That person came from the village.’

kɨnmar mra-mu ya-mu

person dog-ERG/FOC? bite-TNS

‘The dog bit that person.’