Boiken (Nucum, Yangoru) is one of the more populous of the Ndu languages of Sepik River region of northern Papua New Guinea. It is spoken around Boiken Creek in Yangoru-Saussia District, East Sepik Province and adjacent islands off the north coast of northern Papua New Guinea.[1]

Boiken
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionSepik River basin
Native speakers
35,000 (2004)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bzf
Glottologboik1241
ELPBoiken

Phonology

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Boiken consonants[2]
Labial Dental Alveolar Dorsal Glottal
Nasal m n (ŋ)
Stop p t k (ʔ)
Affricate t̪s̪
Fricative voiceless ɸ s x
voiced ɣ
Approximant w j
Trill r
Flap ɺ
  • Stop sounds /p, t̪s̪, t, k/ are heard as voiced [b, d̪z̪, d, ɡ] when following a nasal counterpart.
  • /k/ has an allophone of a glottal [ʔ] in word-final position, or when preceding a consonant in word-medial position.
  • Sounds /ɸ, s, x/ can be voiced as [β, z, ɣ] in intervocalic positions.
  • /n/ is heard as [ŋ] when preceding velar consonants, or freely in word-final position.
  • /r/ can be heard as a voiceless trill [r̥] in word-initial positions.
Boiken vowels[2]
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Mid e ə o
Open æ a ɒ
  • /ɨ, ə/ have allophones of [ɪ, ɛ] when following dental and alveolar sounds.
  • /u/ has an allophone of [ʊ] when preceding /k/ heard as a glottal [ʔ] in word-medial and word-final positions.
  • /o/ has an allophone of [ɔ] when following labial and velar sounds.

References

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  1. ^ a b Boiken at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
  2. ^ a b Freudenburg, Allen & Marlene (1974). Boiken phonemes. In Richard Loving (ed.), Phonologies of four Papua New Guinea languages: Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 97–127.
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  • Paradisec houses two collections of Arthur Capell's materials that include Boiken (AC1 and AC2) as well as notes from Don Laycock's work (DL2) all of these collections are open access.