Bunama language

Bunama is an Austronesian language spoken in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua New Guinea.

Bunama
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Milne Bay Province
Native speakers	(4,000 cited 1993)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic Papuan Tip Nuclear Papuan Tip North Papuan Mainland – D'Entrecasteaux Dobu–Duau Bunama
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bdd
Glottolog	buna1276

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		plain	lab.			plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Plosive	vless/asp.	p	pʷ	t̪ʰ				ʔ	ʔʷ
	voiced	b	bʷ	d		ɡ	ɡʷ
Fricative				s				h	hʷ
Nasal		m	mʷ	n
Lateral				ɺ
Approximant				j		w

• /p/ can fluctuate to aspirated [pʰ] in stressed syllables.
• /b d ɡ/ can also be heard as [ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ] word-initially in stressed syllables.
• /b/ can be heard as a fricative [β] intervocalically in word-medial position.
• /d/ can be heard as a tap [ɾ] intervocalically in word-medial position.
• /s/ can be heard as a more fronted [s̪] in unstressed syllables following vowels /ɛ, a/.
• Prevoicing of the lateral flap [ ̬ɺ] may also occur in initial positions.
• /ɺ/ may also be heard as a retroflex flap [ɽ] depending on the dialect of the speaker. It can also be heard as [ ̬ɽ] when realized as prevoiced in word-initial positions.
• /w/ may fluctuate to a labio-dental [v] among some speakers.
• /j/ may be realized as a dental approximant [ð̞] when before /a/.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		ʊ
Mid	ɛ		o
Open		a

• /a/ is heard as [ɒ] before and after a labialized consonant, or with sounds /w/, /ʔ/. It is also heard as [ʌ] word-medially and word-finally in unstressed syllables.
• /ʊ/ is heard as [ʊ] word-medially and word-finally but never following labialized consonants, or semivowels /w, j/. It is heard as [u] when following sounds /s t̪ʰ/.
• /o/ can be heard as [ɔ] when preceding a glottal stop /ʔ/.