Nemi language
Austronesian language spoken in New Caledonia
| Nemi | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Hienghène, New Caledonia |
Native speakers | 910 (2009 census)[1] |
Language family | Austronesian
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nem |
| Glottolog | nemi1240 |
| ELP | Nemi |
 Nemi is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
The Nemi language is a Kanak language spoken by 320 people in the north of New Caledonia, in the commune of Hienghène. Dialects include Ouanga, Ouélis, and Kavatch.[2]
Phonology
The phonology of Nemi is as follows:[3]
| Labiovelar | Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | voiced | mʷˠ | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
| voiceless | m̥ʷˠ | m̥ | n̥ | ɲ̥ | ŋ̥ | ||
| Stops | tenuis | pʷˠ | p | t | c | k | |
| aspirated | pʷˠʰ | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||
| prenasalized | ᵐpʷˠ | ᵐp | ⁿt | ᶮc | ᵑk | ||
| postnasalized | pʷˠᵐ | pᵐ | tⁿ | cᶮ | kᵑ | ||
| Continuants | voiced oral | w | v | (l) | j | ||
| voiceless oral | w̥ | f | j̥ | h | |||
| voiced nasal | w̃ | ||||||
| voiceless nasal | w̥̃ | h̃ | |||||
Note that the 'labiovelar' consonants are labialized and velarized bilabial consonants (with the exception of /w/ and its voiceless, nasal, and voiceless nasal counterparts, which are labial-velar approximants.).
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | |
| High | i | iː | u | uː |
| Mid | e | eː | o | oː |
| Low | a | aː | ||
The vowel /a/ actually represents the low central unrounded vowel, [ä], and not the low front unrounded vowel, [a].
References
- ^ Nemi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Isabelle Bril, Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre, Complex Predicates in Oceanic Languages: Studies in the Dynamics of Binding and Boundness (2012), p. 389.
- ^ Rivierre, Françoise. 1975. Phonologie du némi (Nouvelle-Calédonie) et notes sur les consonnes postnasalisées. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 70. 345-356.
Bibliography
- Haudricourt, André-Georges; Ozanne-Rivierre, Françoise (1982). Dictionnaire thématique des langues de la région de Hienghène (Nouvelle-Calédonie) : pije, fwâi, nemi, jawe. Précédé d'une phonologie comparée des langues de Hienghène et du proto-océanien. Paris: Société d'Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France. p. 285. ISBN 978-2852971349.
External links
- Information about the Nemi language
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