Adzera language

Adzera
Spoken in	Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	30,000  (date missing)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic North New Guinea ? Ngero–Vitiaz ? Huon Gulf Markham Upper Adzera
Writing system	Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	variously: adz – Adzera zsu – Sukurum zsa – Sarasira
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Adzera (also spelled Atzera, Azera, Atsera, Acira) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 30,000 people in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	/i/	/u/
Low	/ɑ/

The diphthongs /ɑi ɑu/ occur, while other sequences of vowels are split over two syllables.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	Plain	p		t			k	ʔ
	Voiced	b		d			ɡ
	Prenasalized	ᵐp		ⁿt			ᵑk	ⁿʔ
Affricate	Plain			tʃ
	Voiced			dʒ
	Prenasalized			ⁿtʃ
Nasal		m		n			ŋ
Rhotic				r
Fricative			f	s				h
Approximant		w				j

/h/ occurs in only one word: the interjection hai "yes".

The prenasalized consonants tend to lose prenasalization initially and after consonants.

/tʃ ⁿtʃ/ are sometimes realized as [ts ⁿts], especially in codas.

Writing system

A a	B b	D d	Dz dz	F f	G g	H h	I i	K k	M m	Mp mp	N n	Nt nt
/ɑ/	/b/	/d/	/dʒ/	/f/	/ɡ/	/h/	/i/	/k/	/m/	/ᵐp/	/n/	/ⁿt/
Nts nts	Ŋ ŋ	Ŋk ŋk	Ŋʼ ŋʼ	P p	R r	S s	T t	Ts ts	U u	W w	Y y	ʼ
/ⁿtʃ/	/ŋ/	/ᵑk/	/ⁿʔ/	/p/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/tʃ/	/u/	/w/	/j/	/ʔ/

J, o and z are used in some loanwords and names.

References

• Cates, Ann R. (1974). "The Atzera literacy programme: An experimental campaign in Papua New Guinea". Papua New Guinea Journal of Education 10: 34–38. 
• Holzknecht, K. G. (1973). "The phonemes of the Adzera language". Pacific Linguistics A 38: 1–11. 
• Holzknecht, K. G. (1973). "Morphophonemics of the Adzera language". Pacific Linguistics A 38: 13–19. 
• Holzknecht, K. G. (1973). "A synopsis of the verb forms in Adzera". Pacific Linguistics A 38: 21–28. 
• Holzknecht, K. G. (1978). Adzera–English dictionary. 
• Holzknecht, S. (1986). "A morphology and grammar of Adzera (Amari dialect), Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea". Pacific Linguistics A 70: 77–166. 
• Howard, David Edward (2002). Continuity and given-new status of discourse referents in Adzera oral narrative.. M.A. thesis. University of Texas at Arlington. 
• Roke, Ann; Price, Dorothy (1970). A summary of the Atzera literacy programme. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. 

External links

• Adzera language at Ethnologue
• Entry for Adzera at Rosetta Project