Summary
Gimi, also known as Labogai, is a Papuan language spoken in the Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea. 23,000 speakers (2000 cited) speak the Gimi language.
| Gimi | |
|---|---|
| Labogai | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Eastern Highlands Province |
Native speakers | (23,000 cited 2000)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gim |
| Glottolog | gimi1243 |
Phonology
editGimi has 5 vowels and 12 consonants.[2] It has voiceless and voiced glottal consonants where related languages have /k/ and /ɡ/. The voiceless glottal is simply a glottal stop [ʔ]. The voiced consonant behaves phonologically like a glottal stop, but does not have full closure. Phonetically it is a creaky-voiced glottal approximant [ʔ̞].[3]
Vowels
edit| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Low | ɑ | |
Consonants
edit| Bilabial | Alveolar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | ʔ̞ | |
| Nasal | m | n | ||
| Tap/Flap | ɾ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | h | |
| voiced | z | |||
Allophony
edit/p/ occurs word initially only in loanwords.
/b/ can surface as either [b] or [β] in free variation.
/z/ becomes [s] before /ɑ/.
/t/ and /ɾ/ tend to fluctuate with one another word initially.
Syllables
editThe syllable structure is (C)V(G), where G is either /ʔ/ or /ʔ̞/.
Tone
editThe final vowel of a word takes either a level or falling tone. The falling tone is written with an acute accent.
| ak "seed" | ák "armband" | ||
| nimi "bird" | nimí "louse" |
Orthography
editGimi uses the Latin script.[2]
| Letter | Aa | Bb | Dd | Ee | Gg | Hh | Ii | Kk | Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Zz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | ɑ | b | d | e | ʔ̞ | h | i | ʔ | m | n | o | p | ɾ | s | t | u | z |
References
edit- ^ Gimi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ a b Gimi Organised Phonology Data. [Manuscript] [1]
- ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 77–78. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
