Wogamusin language

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Wogamusin
Spoken in: Ambunti District, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea
Total speakers: 700 (1998)[1]
Language family: Sepik-Ramu
 Sepik
  Upper Sepik
   Wogamusin
    Wogamusin
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: paa
ISO 639-3: wog
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Wogamusin is a Papuan language spoken by about 700 people (as of 1998) in four villages in the Ambunti District of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.[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 unstressed syllables; when it is followed by /w/ it is rounded: [ɵu̯].[3]

Consonants[4]
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive Voiceless p t k
Voiced b d g
Voiced prenasalized mb nd ŋg
Fricative s h
Flap ɺ
Approximant j w


Between vowels, /b/ and /g/ lenite to the fricatives [β] and [ɣ], respectively. /s/ is realized as an affricate, [ts], word-initially. /h/ is velar, [x], after /a/ and /o/. Word-finally, voiceless stops are usually unreleased.[5]


[edit] Phonotactics

The consonant /ŋ/ only occurs finally. Bilabial and velar consonants may be followed by /w/ when initial, but otherwise consonant clusters only occur over syllable boundaries, with the exception of the unusual word /məmt/ ('snake').[6]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Ethnologue.
  2. ^ Laycock (1965:114)
  3. ^ Laycock (1965:114)
  4. ^ Laycock (1965:114)
  5. ^ Laycock (1965:114)
  6. ^ Laycock (1965:114)

[edit] References

  • Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005). "Wogamusin", 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
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