Cèmuhî language

Cèmuhî (Camuhi, Camuki, Tyamuhi, Wagap) is an Oceanic language spoken on the island of New Caledonia, in the area of Poindimié, Koné, and Touho. The language has approximately 3,300 speakers and is considered a regional language of France.

Cèmuhî
Wagap
Native toNew Caledonia
RegionTouho: east coast from Congouma to Wagap and inland valleys
Native speakers
2,600 (2009)[1]
Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3cam
Glottologcemu1238
Cèmuhî is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of Cèmuhî (after Rivierre 1980) are shown in the table below.

Consonant phonemes
  Labiovelar Labial Retroflex Palatal Velar Laryngeal
Voiceless stop pʷ  p  t  c  k    
Prenasalized stop ᵐbʷ  ᵐb  ⁿd  ᶮɟ  ᵑg    
Nasal mʷ
h̃ʷ		  m  n  ɲ  ŋ  h̃ 
Continuant w     (r)
l		        (h) 

Rivierre (1980) analyzes the contrasts of Cèmuhî along three emic categories: nasal, semi-nasal (i.e. prenasalized), and oral consonants.

Vowels

The chart below shows Cèmuhî vowels, all of which can contrast in both length and nasality.[2]

Vowel phonemes
  Front Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Tone

Like its neighbour Paicî, Cèmuhî is one of the few Austronesian languages which have developed contrastive tone. However, unlike other New Caledonian tonal languages, Cèmuhî has three tonal registers: high, mid, and low tones.[3]

See also

Notes
  1. Cèmuhî at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Rivierre (1980).
  3. Rivierre (1972, 1980).

Bibliography
  • Rivierre, Jean-Claude (1972). Les Tons de la langue de Touho (Nouvelle-Calédonie) : Etude diachronique. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 1972, vol.67, n°1, p. 301-316.
  • Rivierre, Jean-Claude (1980). La Langue de Touho : Phonologie et grammaire du Cèmuhî (Nouvelle-Calédonie). Paris: Société d'Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France. p. 363.
  • Rivierre, Jean-Claude (1983). Dictionnaire cèmuhî – français, suivi d'un lexique français – cèmuhî. Paris: Société d'Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France. p. 375.
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