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Mengen language 
Summary
Mengen and Poeng are rather divergent dialects of an Austronesian language of New Britain in Papua New Guinea.
| Mengen | |
|---|---|
| Poeng | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | New Britain |
Native speakers | (8,400 cited 1982)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mee |
| Glottolog | meng1267 |
Phonology edit
| Labial | Alveolar | Dorsal | Uvular | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | (k) | q |
| voiced | b | (d) | g | ||
| Fricative | s | ||||
| Rhotic | r | ||||
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Glide | (w) | (j) | |||
- Both palatalization and labialization [ʲ, ʷ] is said to occur in all consonants. Palatalized consonants only occur before back vowels, and labialized consonant sounds may occur before all vowels accept /u/.
- /k/ is typically pronounced as uvular [q], but can also be heard as a velar [k] in free variation.
- Gemination or length, may also occur among consonant sounds.
- Sounds /b, ɡ/ are pronounced as voiced stops [b, ɡ], but are also heard as fricatives [β, ɣ] in intervocalic position.
- /r/ may have variation between a trill [r], a tap [ɾ], or a voiced stop [d] within vocabulary.
- Sounds /j, w/ are said to exist as a result of palatalization or labialization, but only in very few root words in word-initial position.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Low | a |
- Sounds /a, o/ are raised to [ʌ, o̝] within the environment of consonant length.[2]
References edit
- ^ Mengen at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Rath, Daniel D. (1993). Mengen phonology essentials. John M. Clifton (ed.), Phonologies of Austronesian languages 2: Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 71–98.
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External links edit
- "Organised Phonology Data" (PDF).
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - "Mengen Dictionary" (PDF).
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