Nii language
| Nii | |
|---|---|
| Ek Nii | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Western Highlands Province |
Native speakers | (12,000 cited 1991)[1] |
Trans–New Guinea
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nii |
| Glottolog | niii1240 |
Nii is a Trans–New Guinea language of the Chimbu–Wahgi branch spoken in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Nii has an unusual number of
dental and velar lateral fricatives, /ɬ̪/ and /𝼄/, which are optionally voiced between vowels and do not occur in initial position.[2]
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
Near-High
|
ɪ | ||
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | ɑ |
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n
|
ŋ | |||
Plosive
|
voiceless | p | ( t̪)[a]
|
( t)[b]
|
k | |
prenasalized
|
ᵐb | ⁿd | ⁿdz | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | s̪
|
|||||
| Trill | r̝
|
|||||
| Lateral | ɬ̪
|
l
|
ʟ̝̊ | |||
Approximant
|
w | j | ||||
References
- ^ Nii at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Foley, 1986:63, The Papuan languages of New Guinea
Further reading
- Stucky, Al (1994). "Organised Phonology Data" (PDF).
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