Hamtai language

Hamtai
Hamday
Kapau
Native to Papua New Guinea
Region Morobe Province, Gulf Province
Native speakers
 45,000 (1998)[1]
Trans–New Guinea
Dialects
  • Wenta
  • Howi
  • Pmasa'a
  • Hamtai Proper
  • Kaintiba
Language codes
ISO 639-3 hmt
Glottolog hamt1247[2]

Hamtai (also called Hamday or Kapau) is the most populous of the Angan languages of Papua New Guinea. It is also known as Kamea (in Gulf Province), Kapau, and Watut. Dialects are Wenta, Howi, Pmasa’a, Hamtai proper, and Kaintiba.

Phonology

In Hamtai, there are 14 consonants, 7 vowels, and two tones (rising and falling).

Vowels

Table of vowels in Hamtai[3][4]
Front Central Back
Close i
/i/		i
/ɨ/		u
/u/
Open Mid ä, aa
/ʌ/
Close Mid e
/e/		o
/o/
Open a
/a/

Consonants

Table of consonant phonemes in Hamtai[3]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m
/m/		 n
/n/		 ng
/ŋ/
Plosive p
/p/		 t
/t/		 k
/k/		 k̥/q
/q/		 '
/ʔ/
Approximant voiced y
/j/		 w
/w/
unvoiced wh
/w̥/
Fricative voiced v
/v/
unvoiced f
/f/		 h
/h/

References

  1. ↑ Hamtai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Hamtai". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. 1 2 Healy, Alan (1981). The Phonological Complexity of Kapau. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. p. 95.
  4. ↑ Oates, W.; Oates, L. (1968). Kapau pedagogical grammar. Canberra, Australia: The Australian National University. pp. 7–8.
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