Nengone language

Nengone is a language of the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia.

Nengone
Region	Maré Island, New Caledonia
Native speakers	8,700 (2009 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic New Caledonian – Loyalties Loyalty Islands Nengone
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nen
Glottolog	neng1238
Nengone is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Phonology

The phonological inventory of consonants is atypically large for an Oceanic language. Many sounds which are allophones in other sub-families are distinct phonemes in the Nengone language:

Consonant sounds

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p		t	ʈ		k	ʔ
	voiced	b		d	ɖ		ɡ
Affricate	voiceless					t͡ʃ
	voiced					d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	(f)	θ	s		ʃ	(x)	h
	voiced			z			ɣ
Nasal	voiceless	m̥		n̥			ŋ̊
	voiced	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Rhotic				r
Approximant	voiceless	w̥
	voiced	w			ɭ	j

Phonemes in parentheses only occur in words borrowed from other languages.

Vowel sounds

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

Bibliography

• Tryon, D.T. and Dubois, M.J. Nengone dictionary. Part I: Nengone-English. C-9, viii + 452 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1969. doi:10.15144/PL-C9
• Tryon, D.T. and Dubois, M.J. Nengone dictionary. Part II: English-Nengone. C-23, iv + 205 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1971. doi:10.15144/PL-C23