Note 8 — Notes on the Papuan Languages spoken about the Head Waters of the St. Joseph River, Central Papua

2. Afoa.—The Afoa vocabulary was collected by Dr. Strong in the villages on Mount Pitsoko from a Fuyuge native who spoke Afoa fluently. Dr. Strong also obtained a short vocabulary from a native who came from a village apparently on the slopes of Mount Davidson. The language is substantially the same as the Tauata or Tauatape of which Rev. Father Egedi has published a Vocabulary and Grammar.8 There are, however, a few slight differences which seem to confirm Father Egedi’s statement that there is probably a difference of pronunciation in the various Afoa villages.9 Father Egedi writes: p, v, k, t, l, ts where Dr. Strong has: b, w, g, d, r, t. The latter also has final i for e, ōā for a or o, ia for ea, u for oi ai for ei. Sometimes b represents m or v. Some of Dr. Strong’s words show marks of Afoa grammar, as, e.g., the words for eat, see, sit, give, head, husband or wife, mother, are: na nai, I eat; na nu kava, I thee see; na navi, I sit; nu inie, thou givest; ni adi, your head; omen iva, his wife or her husband; aumen ini, his mother. The Tauata words are added to the Afoa Vocabulary in square brackets.