- Iwam language
-
Iwam Spoken in Sandaun Province Native speakers 3,000 (1998) Language family Sepik- Upper Sepik
- Iwam
- Iwam
- Iwam
Language codes ISO 639-3 iwm This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. Iwam or May River Iwam is a language of Papua New Guinea spoken in Sandaun Province.[1]
Contents
Phonology
Vowels[2] Front Central Back Close i u Mid e ə o Open a In non-final positions, /u/ /o/, /i/, and /e/ are [ʊ] [ɔ], [ɪ], and [ɛ], respectively. /ə/ appears only in nonfinal syllables. When adjacent to nasal consonants, vowels are nasalized; nasalization may also occur when adjacent to word boundaries.[2]
Consonants[2] Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal m n ŋ Plosive p t k Fricative s h Flap r Approximant j w /p/ and /k/ are voiced fricatives ([β] and [ɣ]) respectively) when intervocalic and unreleased when final (/t/ is also unreleased when final). /ŋ/ is a nasal flap ([ɾ̃]) word-initially and between vowels. /s/ is [ts] initially and may otherwise be palatalized [sʲ].[2] Sequences of any consonant and /w/ are neutralized before /u/ where an offglide is always heard.
Phonotactics
Bilabial and velar consonants and /n/ may be followed by /w/ when initial. Other initial clusters include /pr/, /kr/, /hr/, /hw/, and /hn/ and final clusters are /w/ or /j/ followed by any consonant except for /h/ or /ŋ/.[2]
Notes
References
- Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005). "Iwam". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (Fifteenth ed.). Dallas, Tex.: SIL International.
- Laycock, D.C. (1965). "Three Upper Sepik phonologies". Oceanic Linguistics (University of Hawai'i Press) 4 (1/2): 113–118. doi:10.2307/3622917. JSTOR 3622917
Categories: - Upper Sepik
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.