Aghu language

Aghu
Jair
Region Papua, Indonesia
Native speakers
 (14,000 cited 1987–2002)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Variously:
ahh – Aghu
awv – Jair (Kia)
yir – North Awyu
awu – Central Awyu
Glottolog mapp1234  Mappi–Digul Awyu[2]
jair1235  Jair Awyu[3]
nort2918  North Awyu[4]

Aghu, also known as Awyu or Djair (Dyair, Jair, Yair), is a Papuan language of Papua, Indonesia.

Ethnologue assigns separate ISO codes for Aghu/Jair, Jair, North Awyu/Jair, and Central Awyu. However, these have not been attested as separate languages (U. Amsterdam), and it is not clear that all correspond to Aghu.

Phonology

The phonology of the Aghu language[5]:

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive voiceless p t k
voiced b d~ɾ ɡ
Nasal m n
Fricative f s~ʃ x
Approximant w j
Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i iː y yː u uː
Mid ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː
Open a aː

At the ends of words, vowels may appear both long and nasalized. This occurs historically where there was a final nasal /m/ or /n/. Within words, rather than nasal vowels there are sequences of vowel plus nasal consonant which matches the articulation of the following consonant. Thus nasal vowels may be analyzed as /Vn/ or /VN/.

References

  1. ↑ Aghu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Jair (Kia) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    North Awyu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Central Awyu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Mappi–Digul Awyu". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Jair Awyu". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "North Awyu". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  5. ↑ van den Heuvel, Wilco (2016). Aghu: annotated texts with grammatical introduction and vocabulary lists. Canberra: Australian National University.

Further reading

  • Drabbe, P. (1957). Spraakkunst van het Aghu-dialect van de Awju-taal (in Dutch). Den Haag: M. Nijhoff.
  • Voorhoeve, C. L. (1980) [1975]. Languages of Irian Jaya, Checklist: Preliminary Classification, Language Maps, Wordlists. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 28, 98.


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