Vanimo language
Vanimo (Wanimo, Manimo) is a Skou language of Papua New Guinea which extends from Leitre to Wutung on the Papua New Guinea - Indonesian border.
| Vanimo | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Sandaun Province |
| Ethnicity | Dumo people, Dusur |
Native speakers | 2,700 (2000 census)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | vam |
| Glottolog | vani1248 |
| ELP | Vanimo |
Phonology
The Duso dialect of Vanimo is unusual in not having any phonemic velar consonants, though it does have phonetic [ŋ].[2]
The vowels of Dumo dialect are,
| i | u | |
| e~ei | ø ⟨ö⟩ | o |
| ɛ~æ | ɔ | |
| a |
All occur nasalized, varying phonetically between a nasal vowel and a vowel followed by consonantal [ŋ]. Nasal /u/ may be realized as a syllabic [ŋ̍].
In Dumo, there are no velar consonants apart from this [ŋ] (and also as noted below). The other consonants are,
| p~ɸ | t | ||
| b | d | j~dʲ~d͡ʒ | |
| β~w | s | ɦ | |
| m | n | ɲ | |
| l |
Consonant clusters are /pl, bl, ml, ɲv, hv, hm, hn, hɲ, hj/ (hv and hm may be allophones). /ɲv/ is pronounced [ŋβ]. There are no coda consonants apart from [ŋ].
/k, ɡ, ŋ/ do occur in Dusö dialect. They correspond to /ɦ/ or zero in Dumo.
Dumo syllables may have either a 'high' or a 'long' tone. There is strict syllable timing, a 'long'-toned syllable takes the entire time allotted for a syllable, whereas with a high-tone or atonic syllable, there is a slight gap between it and the following syllable. Ross writes high tone with a grave accent, and long tone with an acute accent. A syllable with a nasal vowel / coda [ŋ] is not necessarily long, it may have any of the three tones.
References
- Vanimo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Malcolm Ross, 1980, "Some elements of Vanimo, a New Guinea tone language"
Further reading
- Clifton, John M. (1995). "Organised Phonology Data" (PDF).
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