Proto-Kui-Kuwi : *aj-/*jaj-
Meaning : mother; woman
Kui : aia, aiali, aja, ia, ija, ijali "mother, woman"
Kuwi (Fitzgerald) : īya "mother"
Kuwi (Schulze) : īya "mother, woman"
Sunkarametta Kuwi : aya (pl. -ska) "woman"
Parja Kuwi : aya (pl. -ska) "woman"
Kuwi (Israel) : āya (pl. -ska/-sika) "woman, wife"
Additional forms : Also Kuwi_F māiya my mother, māya your mother; aiya woman; Kuwi_S māyia my, our mother, mīya your mother; Kuwi_Su iya (pl. -ska) mother; mīya your mother
Notes : The forms *aya and *yaya actually had different meanings in PK (as well as in PDR) - 'woman' and 'mother' respectively. However, in modern dialects they have been often contaminated, as in Kui. Moreover, some Kuwi dialects have inherited PDR possessive forms, or, rather, the tendency of their "possessivisation": the form māiya goes back to *mā-yaya 'us + mother', while Kuwi_F māya and Kuwi_S mīya go back to *mī-yaya 'you + mother'. The initial *y- in the form for 'mother' has to be postulated principally because of different vocalism in these two forms (cf. PK *yamb- > Kuwi_F amb-, Kuwi_S imb-). In Kuwi_F *yaya > *īya (and not *āya, which would have been regular) because of the influence of the following -y- (like *yambi > imbi because of the following -i-). In Kui the variants -i- and -j- seem to be free; the variant -j- should be the regular one, but we may suggest that the variant with -i- has been preserved for expressive reasons. As for other Kui dialects, it is hard to say whether some of them have lost one of the two forms (*aya and *yaya), having generalized the other one for both meanings, or whether they have merged phonetically, since reflexes of PK *ya- are unknown. Thus, Kuwi_Isr āya may reflect aya, having lost the form *yaya, or may represent both of them, if we suggest a development *ya- > ā- (indeed, the second explanation is preferable, since otherwise it is impossible to explain the vowel length).
Number in DED : 364
