Aghu, or Central Awyu, is a Papuan language of South Papua, Indonesia. It may actually be two languages, depending on one's criteria for a 'language'. The two varieties are: Mappi River Awyu (Aghu) and Pasue River Awyu (Nohon, Mitak).[2]
Aghu | |
---|---|
Central Awyu | |
Region | South Papua, Indonesia |
Native speakers | (<14,000 cited 1987–2002)[1] |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:ahh – Aghuawu – Central Awyu |
Glottolog | mapp1234 |
Phonology
editThe phonology of the Aghu language:[3]
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | |||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |
voiced | b | d~ɾ | ɡ | ||
Fricative | f | s~ʃ | x | ||
Approximant | w | j |
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i iː | y yː | u uː | |
Mid | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | ||
Open | a aː |
The front rounded vowel /y/ is unusual among local languages in Indonesia. At the ends of words, vowels may appear both long and nasalized. This occurs historically where there was a final nasal /m/ or /n/. Within words, rather than nasal vowels there are sequences of vowel plus nasal consonant which matches the articulation of the following consonant. Thus nasal vowels may be analyzed as /Vn/ or /VN/.
References
edit- ^ Aghu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
Central Awyu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) - ^ "Awyu". newguineaworld. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
- ^ van den Heuvel, Wilco (2016). Aghu: Annotated Texts With Grammatical Introduction and Vocabulary Lists. A-PL 33. Canberra: Australian National University. hdl:1885/111412. ISBN 9781922185358.
Further reading
edit- Drabbe, P. (1957). Spraakkunst van het Aghu-dialect van de Awju-taal (in Dutch). Den Haag: M. Nijhoff.
- Voorhoeve, C. L. (1980) [1975]. Languages of Irian Jaya, Checklist: Preliminary Classification, Language Maps, Wordlists. Series B - No. 31. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 28, 98. hdl:1885/146481.
External links
edit- Aghu at the Awyu–Ndumut research group at VU University Amsterdam
- OLAC resources in and about the Aghu language
- OLAC resources in and about the Central Awyu language
- OLAC resources in and about the Jair Awyu language
- OLAC resources in and about the North Awyu language