Bwaidoka language
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| Bwaidoka | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Milne Bay Province (Goodenough Island, Fergusson Island) |
Native speakers | 6,500 (2000)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bwd |
| Glottolog | bwai1242 |
Bwaidoka is an Austronesian language spoken in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It is a local lingua franca.
Phonology[edit]
Consonants[edit]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | plain | lab. | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | t | k | kʷ | |||
| voiced | b | bʷ | ɡ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | fʷ | s | |||
| voiced | v | ||||||
| Nasal | m | mʷ | n | ||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||
- /t/ can be pronounced as alveolar [t], or dental [t̪] when preceding central or back vowels.
- /ɡ/ can be pronounced as a voiced plosive [ɡ], or as a fricative [ɣ] on an unstressed syllable.
- /j/ can be pronounced as either [j] or as [ð] in free variation.
Vowels[edit]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
- Vowel sounds /i, o, u/ do not occur following labialized consonants.
- /e/ may fluctuate freely from [e] to [ə] in syllable-final, and with [ɛ] as the first vowel sound on stressed syllables.
- /a/ may fluctuate freely from [a] to [ə] on unstressed syllables and as the second vowel sound on stressed syllables.
- /o/ may fluctuate freely from [o] to [ɔ] on unstressed syllables and as the second vowel sound on stressed syllables.[2]
References[edit]
- ^ Bwaidoka at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Gibson, Stan (1992). Bwaidoka organised phonology data. SIL.
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