Boiken language

Boiken (Nucum, Yangoru) is one of the more populous of the Ndu languages of Sepik River region of northern Papua New Guinea. It is spoken around Boiken Creek in Yangoru-Saussia District, East Sepik Province and adjacent islands off the north coast of northern Papua New Guinea.[1]

Boiken
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionSepik River basin
Native speakers
35,000 (2004)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bzf
Glottologboik1241
ELPBoiken

Phonology
Boiken consonants[2]
Labial Dental Alveolar Dorsal Glottal
Nasal m n̪ n (ŋ)
Stop p t k (ʔ)
Affricate t̪s̪
Fricative voiceless ɸ s x
voiced ɣ
Approximant w l̪ j
Trill r
Flap ɺ
  • Stop sounds /p, t̪s̪, t, k/ are heard as voiced [b, d̪z̪, d, ɡ] when following a nasal counterpart.
  • /k/ has an allophone of a glottal [ʔ] in word-final position, or when preceding a consonant in word-medial position.
  • Sounds /ɸ, s, x/ can be voiced as [β, z, ɣ] in intervocalic positions.
  • /n/ is heard as [ŋ] when preceding velar consonants, or freely in word-final position.
  • /r/ can be heard as a voiceless trill [r̥] in word-initial positions.
Boiken vowels[2]
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Mid e ə o
Open æ a ɒ
  • /ɨ, ə/ have allophones of [ɪ, ɛ] when following dental and alveolar sounds.
  • /u/ has an allophone of [ʊ] when preceding /k/ heard as a glottal [ʔ] in word-medial and word-final positions.
  • /o/ has an allophone of [ɔ] when following labial and velar sounds.

References
  1. Boiken at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  2. Freudenburg, Allen & Marlene (1974). Boiken phonemes. In Richard Loving (ed.), Phonologies of four Papua New Guinea languages: Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 97–127.
  • Paradisec houses two collections of Arthur Capell's materials that include Boiken (AC1 and AC2) as well as notes from Don Laycock's work (DL2) all of these collections are open access.
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