Adzera language

Adzera
Region Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers
 ca. 30,000 (2000 census)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Variously:
adz – Adzera
zsu – Sukurum
zsa – Sarasira
Glottolog adze1240  Adzera[2]
suku1264  Sukurum[3]
sara1323  Sarasira[4]

Adzera (also spelled Atzera, Azera, Atsera, Acira) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 30,000 people in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

Vowels

Front Back
High /i/ /u/
Low /ɑ/

The diphthongs /ɑi ɑu/ occur, while other sequences of vowels are split over two syllables.

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop prenasalized ᵐp ⁿt ⁿtʃ ᵑk ⁿʔ
voiceless p t tʃ k ʔ
voiced b d dʒ ɡ
Fricative f s h
Approximant w j
Rhotic r

/h/ occurs in only one word: the interjection hai "yes".

The prenasalized consonants tend to lose prenasalization initially and after consonants.

/tʃ ⁿtʃ/ are sometimes realized as [ts ⁿts], especially in codas.

Writing system

A aB bD dDz dzF fG gH hI iK kM mMp mpN nNt nt
/ɑ//b//d//dʒ//f//ɡ//h//i//k//m//ᵐp//n//ⁿt/
Nts ntsŊ ŋŊk ŋkŊʼ ŋʼP pR rS sT tTs tsU uW wY yʼ
/ⁿtʃ//ŋ//ᵑk//ⁿʔ//p//r//s//t//tʃ//u//w//j//ʔ/

J, o and z are used in some loanwords and names.

References

  1. ↑ Adzera at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Sukurum at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Sarasira at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Adzera". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Sukurum". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Sarasira". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

Further reading

  • Cates, Ann R. (1974). "The Atzera literacy programme: An experimental campaign in Papua New Guinea". Papua New Guinea Journal of Education. 10: 34&ndash, 38.
  • Holzknecht, K. G. (1973). "The phonemes of the Adzera language". Pacific Linguistics A. 38: 1–11.
  • Holzknecht, K. G. (1973). "Morphophonemics of the Adzera language". Pacific Linguistics A. 38: 13–19.
  • Holzknecht, K. G. (1973). "A synopsis of the verb forms in Adzera". Pacific Linguistics A. 38: 21–28.
  • Holzknecht, K. G. (1978). Adzera–English dictionary.
  • Holzknecht, S. (1986). "A morphology and grammar of Adzera (Amari dialect), Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea". Pacific Linguistics A. 70: 77–166.
  • Howard, David Edward (2002). Continuity and given-new status of discourse referents in Adzera oral narrative. M.A. thesis. University of Texas at Arlington.
  • Roke, Ann; Price, Dorothy (1970). A summary of the Atzera literacy programme. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.


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