Kovai language
Kovai (Kobai, Kowai) is a Papuan language spoken on Umboi Island, halfway between mainland Papua New Guinea and the island of New Britain, and mostly within the caldera of that volcanic island.
Kovai | |
---|---|
Native to | Papua New Guinea |
Region | Umboi Island, Morobe Province |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2011)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | kqb |
Glottolog | kova1243 |
Phonology
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | o | |
Open | a |
- Vowels may be heard as lax [ɪ ɛ ʌ ɔ ʊ] when in closed syllables.[2]
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |
voiced | b | ɡ | |||
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
Fricative | voiceless | s | |||
voiced | z | ||||
Trill | r | ||||
Approximant | w | l | j |
- In word-final position /b ɡ/ can be heard as devoiced [b̥ ɡ̊], and may also be realized as fricatives [β ɣ] in intervocalic positions.[3]
References
- Kovai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Bugenhagen, Robert D. (1994). Language change on Umboi island. Tom Dutton and Darrell T. Tryon (eds.), Language contact and change in the Austronesian world: Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 46.
- Brown, Alan (1992). Kovai (Umboi) organized phonology data. SIL.
External links
![](../I/Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg.png.webp)
For a list of words relating to Kovai language, see the Kovai language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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