Khehek language

Khehek
Levei-Ndrehet
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionWest-central Manus Island, Manus Province
Native speakers
(1,600 cited 1991)[1]
Dialects
  • Drehet (Ndrehet)
  • Levei
Language codes
ISO 639-3tlx
Glottologkheh1237
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Khehek is an Oceanic language spoken by approximately 1600 people on west-central Manus Island, Manus Province of Papua New Guinea. It has two dialects, Drehet and Levei, which are sometimes considered separate languages.

Phonology

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The following description is of the Drehet dialect.

Consonants

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Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plain Labialized
Stop Unaspirated p t c k
Aspirated
Fricative s h
Nasal m n ŋ
Prenasalized trill nᵈr
Lateral l
Trill r
Semivowel w j

References

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  1. ^ Khehek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

Further reading

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  • Blust, Robert (2005). "Must sound change be linguistically motivated?". Diachronica. 22 (2): 219–269. doi:10.1075/dia.22.2.02blu.
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