Nyâlayu language
Nyelâyu | |
---|---|
Pronunciation | [jãlɑjʊ] |
Native to | New Caledonia |
Native speakers | 2,000 (2009 census)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
yly |
Glottolog |
nyal1254 Nyalayu/Belep[2]bala1316 Balade[3] |
Nyelâyu (Yâlayu), more commonly known as Nyelâyu, is a Kanak language of northern New Caledonia, spoken by approximately 2,000 speakers. There are two dialects that are not mutually intelligible. Pooc (or Haat) is spoken in the Belep islands, which are located just north of Grande Terre. Puma (or Paak or Ovac) is spoken in the northermost regions of New Caledonia in the areas around Poum in the west and Pouébo and Balade in the east.
Consonants
Bilabial | Labiovelar | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plain stops | p | pʷ | t | c | k | |
Aspirated stops | pʰ | pʰʷ | tʰ | cʰ | kʰ | |
Prenasalized stops | ᵐb | ᵐbʷ | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑg | |
Plain nasals | m | mʷ | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
Aspirated nasals | mʰ | mʰʷ | nʰ | ɲʰ | ||
Fricatives | β | ɣ (x) | h | |||
Semivowels | w | j | ||||
Aspirated semivowels | wʰ | jʰ | ||||
Trill | r | |||||
Laterals | l lʰ l᷉ | |||||
Voiceless stops, nasals, and approximants exhibit a constrast of aspiration exhibited in the following examples.
pe [pe] "ray fish" || phe [pʰe] "sharpening stone"
teec [teec] "scorching" || theec [tʰeec] "washed up"
nu [nu] "coconut palm" || nhu [nʰu] "hot"
Aspirated consonants are very subtly marked. Aspiration seems to be a prosodic trait that affects the overall realization of the syllable by lowering the register of the voice. [4]
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i (u) iː | u uː | |
Mid | e (ø) eː | o oː | |
Open | a aː |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i᷉ i᷉ː | u᷉ u᷉ː | |
Mid | e᷉ e᷉ː | o᷉ o᷉ː | |
Open | a᷉ a᷉ː |
The vowels /y/ and /ø/ are in parentheses, because they are very rare and appear only in a few words. [4]
References
- ↑ Nyelâyu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Nyalayu/Belep". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Balade". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- 1 2 Ozanne-Rivierre, Françoise (1998). Le Nyelâyu de Balade (Nouvelle-Calédonie). Paris: Peeters Press.