Tabo language
Tabo, also known as Waia (Waya), is a Papuan language of Western Province, Papua New Guinea, just north of the Fly River delta. The language has also been known as Hiwi and Hibaradai. "Tabo" means ‘word, mouth’ and is the name of the language, whereas "Waia" is the name of one of the ten villages where Tabo is spoken. Classification. Tabo is not close to other languages. Evans (2018) classifies it as a language isolate. Usher (2020) includes it in the Trans-Fly family. Part of the uncertainty is because many of the attested words of Tabo are  loans from Gogodala or Kiwai, reducing the number of native Tabo words that can be used for comparison and thus making classification difficult. Demographics. In Gogodala Rural LLG, Western Province, Papua New Guinea, Tabo is spoken in: It is spoken by 3,500 people mainly in the southern part Bamu Rural LLG of Western Province. Phonology. The phonemic inventory of Tabo is given below. Vocabulary. The following basic vocabulary words are from Reesink (1976) and Wurm (1973), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: