Waris or Walsa is a Papuan language of northern New Guinea.
The language features monophthong, diphthong, and triphthong vowels.
Waris is spoken by about 2,500 people around Wasengla (3°17′41″S 141°04′23″E / 3.294675°S 141.073027°E / -3.294675; 141.073027 (Wasengla Catholic Mission)), Doponendi ward, Walsa Rural LLG, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea, and also by about 1,500 across the border in Waris District, Keerom Regency in the Indonesian province of Papua.
Classifier prefixes in Waris attach to verbs, and are determined via the physical properties of the object noun phrase being referred to.
Examples include:[3] wondanetbagka-m1-DATmwan-vra-ho-oCLF-get-BEN-IMPwonda ka-m mwan-vra-ho-onetbag 1-DAT CLF-get-BEN-IMP‘Give me a netbag.’nenaspineappleka-m1-DATli-ra-ho-oCLF-get-BEN-IMPnenas ka-m li-ra-ho-opineapple 1-DAT CLF-get-BEN-IMP‘Give me a pineapple.’nelusgreenska-m1-DATninge-ra-ho-oCLF-get-BEN-IMPnelus ka-m ninge-ra-ho-ogreens 1-DAT CLF-get-BEN-IMP‘Give me some greens’Many of these prefixes have lexical parallels with verb roots.