Paicî language

language
name=Paicî
nativename=
states=New Caledonia
region=East coast between Poindimié and Ponérihouen and inland valleys
speakers=5,498
familycolor=Austronesian
fam2=Malayo-Polynesian
fam3=Central-Eastern
fam4=Eastern
fam5=Oceanic
fam6=Central-Eastern
fam7=Remote
fam8=New Caledonian
fam9=Northern
fam10=Central Northern
iso2=map|iso3=pri

The Paicî language is the most populous of the two dozen languages on the main island of New Caledonia. It is spoken in a band across the center of the island.

Phonemic inventory

Paicî has a rather simple inventory of consonants, compared to other languages of New Caledonia, but it has an unusually large number of nasal vowels.

Paicî syllables are restricted to CV.

Consonants

The palatal stops could be considered affricates since they occur with a heavily fricated release. The lateral and tap do not occur word initially except in a few loan words, and the prefix IPA|/ɾɜ/ "they".

Because nasal stops are always followed by nasal vowels, while prenasalized stops are always followed by oral vowels, it might be argued that nasal and prenasalized stops are allophonic. This would reduce the Paicî consonant inventory to 13.

Tones

Paicî has three tones: high, mid, low. Additionally, there are vowels with no inherent tone. (That is, their tone is determined by their environment.) Words commonly have the same tone on all vowels, so tone may belong to the word rather than the syllable.

Vowels

Paicî has a symmetrical system of 10 oral vowels, all found both long and short without significant difference in quality, and seven nasal vowels, some of which may also be long and short. Because sequences of two short vowels may carry two tones, but long vowels are restricted to carrying a single tone, these do appear to be phonemically long vowels rather than sequences.

References

* Rivierre, Jean-Claude. 1983. "Dictionnaire paicî - français, suivi d'un lexique français - paicî". Paris : Société d'Etudes linguistiques et anthropologiques de France, 1983. 375p.

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pri Ethnologue on Paicî]
* [http://www.rosettaproject.org/archive/pri Rosetta Project on Paicî]
* [http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/ALC/Languages/Paici_popup.htm Information on Paicî, with a list of references and a recorded text] (website of LACITO-CNRS)