Iwam language

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Iwam
Spoken in: Sandaun Province
Total speakers: 3,000 (1998)[1]
Language family: Austronesian
 Sepik-Ramu
  Sepik
   Upper Sepik
    Iwam
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: –
ISO 639-3: iwm
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Iwam or May River Iwam is a language of Papua New Guinea spoken in East Sepik Province.[1]

Contents

[edit] 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.[3]

Consonants[4]
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].[5] Sequences of any consonant and /w/ are neutralized before /u/ where an offglide is always heard.

[edit] 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/.[6]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Ethnologue.
  2. ^ Laycock (1965:115)
  3. ^ Laycock (1965:115)
  4. ^ Laycock (1965:115)
  5. ^ Laycock (1965:115)
  6. ^ Laycock (1965:115)

[edit] References

  • Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005). "Iwam", Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition, Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. 
  • Laycock, D.C. (1965), "Three Upper Sepik phonologies", Oceanic Linguistics 4 (1/2): 113-118
Languages