Mengen language
Appearance
Mengen | |
---|---|
Poeng | |
Native to | Papua New Guinea |
Region | New Britain |
Native speakers | (8,400 cited 1982)[1] |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | mee |
Glottolog | meng1267 |
Mengen and Poeng are rather divergent dialects of an Austronesian language of New Britain in Papua New Guinea.
Phonology
[edit]Labial | Alveolar | Dorsal | Uvular | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | (k) | q |
voiced | b | (d) | g | ||
Fricative | s | ||||
Rhotic | r | ||||
Lateral | l | ||||
Glide | (w) | (j) |
- Both palatalization and labialization [ʲ, ʷ] is said to occur in all consonants. Palatalized consonants only occur before back vowels, and labialized consonant sounds may occur before all vowels accept /u/.
- /k/ is typically pronounced as uvular [q], but can also be heard as a velar [k] in free variation.
- Gemination or length, may also occur among consonant sounds.
- Sounds /b, ɡ/ are pronounced as voiced stops [b, ɡ], but are also heard as fricatives [β, ɣ] in intervocalic position.
- /r/ may have variation between a trill [r], a tap [ɾ], or a voiced stop [d] within vocabulary.
- Sounds /j, w/ are said to exist as a result of palatalization or labialization, but only in very few root words in word-initial position.
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
High | i | u |
Mid | e | o |
Low | a |
- Sounds /a, o/ are raised to [ʌ, o̝] within the environment of consonant length.[2]
References
[edit]External links
[edit]- "Organised Phonology Data" (PDF).
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(help) - "Mengen Dictionary" (PDF).
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