Mapos Buang language

Mapos Buang, also known as Mapos or Central Buang, is an Oceanic language in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

Mapos
Central Buang
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Morobe Province
Native speakers	7,000 (2001) 1,400 monolinguals (2001)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic North New Guinea ? Ngero–Vitiaz ? Huon Gulf South Huon Gulf Hote–Buang Buang Mapos
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bzh
Glottolog	mapo1242

Phonology

Mapos Buang has a larger sound inventory than is typical of most Austronesian languages. Notable is the existence of a phonemic contrast between a velar nasal and a uvular nasal, which is extremely rare among the world's languages. Along with this, its phonology is unusually symmetrical compared to most other languages.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i(ː)		u(ː)
Mid	e(ː) ⟨ë⟩	ə* ⟨e⟩	o(ː)
Low	ɛ(ː) ⟨e⟩	a(ː)	ɔ(ː) ⟨ö⟩

* [ə] is a prominent feature of Buang phonology, but is not contrastive. Thus both it and [e] are represented with ⟨e⟩.

Vowel length is shown in the orthography by doubling the letter.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Coronal	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Labio- velar	Uvular
Nasal	m	n	ɲ ⟨ny⟩	ŋ ⟨ng⟩	ŋʷ ⟨ngw⟩	ɴ ⟨nġ⟩
(prenasalized) Occlusive	ᵐb ⟨b⟩	ⁿd ⟨d⟩	ⁿdʒ ⟨j⟩	ᵑɡ ⟨g⟩	ᵑɡʷ ⟨gw⟩	ᶰɢ ⟨ġ⟩
	p	t	tʃ ⟨s⟩	k	kʷ ⟨kw⟩	q ⟨ḳ⟩
Continuant	β ⟨v⟩	l̪ ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩	ɣ ⟨gg⟩	w*	ʁ ⟨h⟩
Liquid		l~ɽ

*/w/ is a bilabial approximant or semivowel with no co-articulated velar component. It is placed in the labio-velar series of the chart as it fills a gap in this position. /β/ is a voiced bilabial fricative.

Orthography is the same as in the IPA when nothing is shown.

External links

• Mapos Buang dictionary (with phonology and grammar)