'Auhelawa language

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ʼAuhelawa
Spoken in: Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea
Total speakers: 1,200
Language family: Austronesian
 Malayo-Polynesian
  Central-Eastern
   Eastern
    Oceanic
     Western
      Papuan Tip
       Nuclear
        Suauic
         ʼAuhelawa 
Writing system: Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: map
ISO 639-3: kud
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

ʼAuhelawa is an Austronesian language spoken by about 1,200 people (as of 1998) in Nuakata Island and the southeastern tip of Normanby Island in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea.

Contents

[edit] ʼAuhelawa Sampler

A: Auge, yauwedo. Haidova u lalau? (My friend, hello. Where are you going?)

B: Ya lalau oyai. Yagu oya vauvauna ya tudai. Owa haidova u lau? (I am going to the garden. I dig my new garden. Where did you go?)

A: Ya dobi gogowai yada bada ehebo ya ita. Teina gona sabate mata yana vada vauvauna ya abi. (I went down to the village to see one of our uncles. Next week I will build his new house.)

B: Yau dova nuwanuwagu yada bada ya hagui. Ebe u dobi u vada abi, u lauma u vaigau ta dobi ta paihowa. (I also want to help our uncle. When you go down to housebuild, you come and get me and we go down and work.)

A: Ausala. Mata ta itago. (Good. We will see you.)

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

Front Back
High i u
Mid ɛ ɔ
Low a

[edit] Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plain Labialized Plain Labialized Plain Labialized Plain Labialized
Stop Voiceless p pʷ t (k) ʔ ʔʷ
Voiced b bʷ d ɡ ɡʷ
Nasal m mʷ n
Fricative Voiceless s h
Voiced β
Approximant j ɥ
Lateral approximant l

/k/ occurs only in loanwords.

[edit] Writing system

ʼAuhelawa is written in the Latin alphabet. About 85% of the population is literate.

A a B b Bw bw D d E e G g Gw gw H h I i K k L l M m Mw mw
/a/ /b/ /bʷ/ /d/ /ɛ/ /ɡ/ /ɡʷ/ /h/ /i/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /mʷ/
N n O o P p Pw pw S s T t U u V v W w Y y ʼ ʼW ʼw
/n/ /ɔ/ /p/ /pʷ/ /s/ /t/ /u/ /β/ /ɥ/ /j/ /ʔ/ /ʔʷ/

[edit] External links

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