Boazi (Bwadji), also known as Kuni after one of its dialects, is a Papuan language spoken in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea by the Bwadji people in the vicinity of Lake Murray and is written using the Latin script, with ⟨æ⟩ for /ɛ/, ⟨ø⟩ for /ʌ/, and ⟨꞉⟩ for (relatively infrequent) vowel length. Some recordings of songs and stories have been made in this language.[2]
| Boazi | |
|---|---|
| Kuni | |
| Region | Papua New Guinea |
Native speakers | 4,500 (2007)[1] |
Anim
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kvg |
| Glottolog | kuni1265 |
Phonology
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | Uvular | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | q |
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ᶰq | |
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | x | |
| voiced | v | z | ɣ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Liquid | l ~ ɾ | ||||
- /l/ can fluctuate as sounds [l ~ d ~ ɾ]. Sounds [ɾ] and [d] are more common in word-medial positions.
- /q/ may also be heard as a retracted velar plosive [k̠] in free variation.
- /ᶰq/ can also be heard as a prenasal velar fricative [ᵑɣ] in free variation.
- Sounds /s, z/ tend to become alveolo-palatal [ɕ, ʑ] when in the environment of a high vowel.
- Sounds /v, z/ tend to be devoiced [v̥, z̥] in word-final positions.
- /f/ may be heard in free fluctuation with [θ] within the environment of a high vowel.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| High-mid | e | o | |
| Low-mid | ɛ | ʌ | |
| Low | a |
Further reading
edit- Drabbe, Petrus. 1954. Talen en dialecten van zuid-west Nieuw-Guinea [Languages and Dialects of Southwest New Guinea]. Posieux/Fribourg: Instituut Anthropos.
- Edwards-Fumey, Deborah. 2006. The verb subject prefix in Kuni. MA thesis: Universität Bern.
References
edit- ^ Boazi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "worldbibles.org". World Bibles.
- ^ Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. p. 86. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^ a b Fumey, Irene and Roland (2006). "Kuni Dialect of the Kuni/Boazi Language [KVG] Western Province". Organized Phonology Data. SIL.
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