Wantoat language
Wantoat, named after the Wantoat River, is one of the Finisterre languages of Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Wapu (Leron), Central Wantoat, Bam, Yagawak (Kandomin), continuing on to Awara, though the last is only 60–70% lexically similar with Wantoat and Wapu. Major Wantoat villages are Gwabogwat, Mamabam, Matap, Ginonga, Kupung.
| Wantoat | |
|---|---|
| Taap | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Morobe Province |
Native speakers | (8,200 cited 1978)[1] |
Trans–New Guinea
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wnc |
| Glottolog | want1252[2] |
Phonology
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ŋʷ | ||
| Stop | plain | p | t | k | kʷ | |
| pre. | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ᵑɡʷ | ||
| Fricative | plain | s | ||||
| pre. | ⁿz | |||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||
Consonants clusters with mixed voicing occur within words:
- okᵑɡa 'your uncle', kaotⁿdu 'half', ɡeᵐbikᵐbik 'lip', temⁿzin 'they will shoot it', kapⁿza 'strong'
| i | u | |||
| e | o | |||
| ə | ||||
| æ | ||||
| ɑ |
Vowel sequences are /ie iə iɑ iu, ee eə eɑ eu, əə, ææ æə, ɑɑ ɑo ɑu, oi oə oɑ, uu/.
Syllables are minimally V and maximally CVVC. Stress is distinctive but has a low functional load.
References
- Wantoat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Wantoat". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
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