Warembori language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Warembori
Waremboivoro 
Pronunciation: IPA: [ˈwarɛmboiβoro]
Spoken in: Papua, Indonesia
Total speakers: ~600
Language family: Lower Mamberamo
 Warembori
 
Writing system: Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: paa
ISO/FDIS 639-3: wsa

Warembori (native name Waremboivoro) is a moribund language spoken by about 600 people in river mouths on the north coast of Papua, Indonesia.

Contents

[edit] Classification

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

Front Back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a

[edit] Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Stop Voiceless p t k
Voiced b d
“Heavy” ˀb ˀd
Nasal Voiced m n
“Heavy” ˀm ˀn
Fricative Voiceless s
Semivowel Voiced w j

The sequence /nk/ is realized as [ŋɡ].

The light voiced stops /b d/ lenite to [β r] between vowels within a word. The heavy stops do not lenite.

When a nasal is followed by a heavy plosive, it is lengthened, i.e. /mˀb/ [mːb] /nˀd/ [nːd]. When not followed by a stop, heavy nasals are long and preceded by a glottal closure, i.e. /ˀm/ [ʔmː] /ˀn/ [ʔnː]. Heavy consonants also attract stress (see below).

[edit] Stress

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Writing system

Warembori is written in the Latin alphabet, with a spelling system based on Indonesian. It represents phonetic, rather than phonemic, distinctions. In particular:

  • /b/ [β] is written v
  • /d/ [r] is written r
  • /nk/ [ŋɡ] is written ngg

[edit] References

  • Donohue, Mark (1999). Warembori. München: Lincom Europa.