Alternate Names: Adjora, Adjoria, Azao
Dialects: Abu, Auwa, Sabu. Intelligibility among dialects sufficient to understand each other’s complex and abstract discourse. Most closely related to Banaro ,. Sabu in northeast language region. Auwa may be a different language.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 4,200 (2000 census). 820 Sabu, 3,380 Abu.
Language Use: Educated young and middle-age adults speak some English [eng]. Also use Tok Pisin [tpi].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: 3%–5% in Tok Pisin [tpi]. Bible portions: 2006.
Typology: SOV; postpositions; genitives before noun heads; articles, adjectives, numerals, relatives after noun heads; word order distinguishes subjects, objects, indirect objects; CV, CVC, CCV, V, VC; nontonal.
Writing System: Latin
Nation of Origin: Papua New Guinea
Other Comments: Christian.