Adzera language

Adzera
Region Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers
ca. 30,000 (2000 census)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Variously:
adz  Adzera
zsu  Sukurum
zsa  Sarasira
Glottolog adze1240  (Adzera)[2]
suku1264  (Sukurum)[3]
sara1323  (Sarasira)[4]

Adzera (also spelled Atzera, Azera, Atsera, Acira) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 30,000 people in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

Vowels

Front Back
High /i/ /u/
Low /ɑ/

The diphthongs /ɑi ɑu/ occur, while other sequences of vowels are split over two syllables.

Consonants

Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop Plain p t k ʔ
Voiced b d ɡ
Prenasalized ᵐp ⁿt ᵑk ⁿʔ
Affricate Plain
Voiced
Prenasalized ⁿtʃ
Nasal m n ŋ
Rhotic r
Fricative f s h
Approximant w j

/h/ occurs in only one word: the interjection hai "yes".

The prenasalized consonants tend to lose prenasalization initially and after consonants.

/tʃ ⁿtʃ/ are sometimes realized as [ts ⁿts], especially in codas.

Writing system

A a B b D d Dz dz F f G g H h I i K k M m Mp mp N n Nt nt
/ɑ/ /b/ /d/ /dʒ/ /f/ /ɡ/ /h/ /i/ /k/ /m/ /ᵐp/ /n/ /ⁿt/
Nts nts Ŋ ŋ Ŋk ŋk Ŋʼ ŋʼ P p R r S s T t Ts ts U u W w Y y ʼ
/ⁿtʃ/ /ŋ/ /ᵑk/ /ⁿʔ/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /tʃ/ /u/ /w/ /j/ /ʔ/

J, o and z are used in some loanwords and names.

References

  1. Adzera at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Sukurum at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Sarasira at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Adzera". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Sukurum". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  4. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Sarasira". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Further reading


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