Molima is an Austronesian language spoken in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua New Guinea.
| Molima | |
|---|---|
| Salakahadi | |
| Fagululu | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Fergusson Island, Milne Bay Province |
Native speakers | 4,000 (2000 census)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mox |
| Glottolog | moli1248 |
Phonology
editConsonants
edit| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | t̪ | k | kʷ | ʔ | ʔʷ | |||
| voiced | b | bʷ | d̪ | ɡ | ɡʷ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | ɸ | ɸʷ | s | h | ||||
| voiced | v | ʝ | ɣ | ||||||
| Nasal | m | mʷ | n̪ | ||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||||
| Approximant | (j) | w | |||||||
- [p] may also occur as an allophone of /ɸ/, or as a result of borrowed words from Dobu, Motu or English.
- /v/ can be weakened as [ʋ] in all environments, in free variation.
- /i/, when preceding a vowel, may also be realized as a semivowel [j].[2]
Vowels
edit| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
References
edit- ^ Molima at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Engkvist, Leif & Helena (2002). Organized Phonology Data of Molima Language (Tola'ai dialect).
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