Kovai (Kobai, Kowai) is a Papuan language spoken on Umboi Island, halfway between mainland Papua New Guinea and the island of New Britain, and mostly within the caldera of that volcanic island.
| Kovai | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Umboi Island, Morobe Province |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2011)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kqb |
| Glottolog | kova1243 |
Phonology
editVowels
edit| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
- Vowels may be heard as lax [ɪ ɛ ʌ ɔ ʊ] when in closed syllables.[2]
Consonants
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |
| voiced | b | ɡ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | |||
| voiced | z | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||
- In word-final position /b ɡ/ can be heard as devoiced [b̥ ɡ̊], and may also be realized as fricatives [β ɣ] in intervocalic positions.[3]
References
edit- ^ Kovai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Bugenhagen, Robert D. (1994). Language change on Umboi island. Tom Dutton and Darrell T. Tryon (eds.), Language contact and change in the Austronesian world: Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 46.
- ^ Brown, Alan (1992). Kovai (Umboi) organized phonology data. SIL.
External links
edit
For a list of words relating to Kovai language, see the Kovai language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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