Fuyug language

Fuyug
Region Papua New Guinea
Native speakers
14,000 (2003)[1]
Goilalan
  • Fuyug
Language codes
ISO 639-3 fuy
Glottolog fuyu1242[2]

Fuyug (Fuyuge, Fuyughe, Mafulu) is a language of Papua New Guinea spoken in the Central Province of the country. The language's 14,000 speakers live in 300 villages in the Goilala District.[3]

Phonology

The usual orthographic convention used to transcribe Fuyug is to use a for /ɑ/, e for /ɛ/, y for /j/, and the corresponding IPA characters for the remaining phonemes.

Vowels

Fuyug possesses five vowel phonemes.[4]

Front Back
Close i u
Mid ɛ o
Open ɑ

The vowel /ɛ/ is pronounced as the diphthong [ɛi̯] when word-final as well as before a word-final consonant. For example, ateg ("truth") is pronounced [ɑˈtɛi̯ɡ] and ode ("where") as [oˈdɛi̯].[5]

All vowels are nasalised before a nasal consonant, as in in ("pandanus") [ˈĩn], ung ("nose") [ˈũŋɡ], em ("house") [ˈẽĩ̯m].[6]

Consonants

Fuyug has 14 consonant phonemes.[7]

Labial Coronal Velar
Plosive Voiceless p t k
Voiced b d ɡ
Fricative Voiceless f s
Voiced v
Nasal m n
Approximant w j
Liquid l

The voiceless plosive are aspirated in a word-final position and before /i/: endanti ("outside") [ɛ̃nˈdɑ̃ntʰi], oki ("fire") [ˈokʰi], eyak ("return") [ɛˈjɑkʰ].[7]

The nasal phoneme /n/ assimilates before a velar consonant becoming [ŋ] : yangos ("rain") [jɑ̃ŋˈɡos].[8]

The pronunciation of the liquid /l/ is in free variation between a lateral [l] and a flap [ɾ]. However, with the exception of words of foreign origin where the word in the source language is written with an r, this is represented in the orthography as l.[5]

Syllables

Fuyug syllables come in the shape (C)V(C)(C). There cannot be more than two consonants adjacent to one another word-internally and the only final clusters permitted are mb, nd and ng. Within a word vowels may not follow one another.[9]

Stress

Stress in Fuyug is predictable. Stress falls on the final syllable in mono- and dissyllabic words and on the antepenult in words of three of four syllables. Affixes do not alter the stressed syllable.[10]

Morphophonology

Certain suffixes (notably the illative -ti) cause a change in the end of the word to which it is attached:[11]

Grammar

Personal pronouns

Fuyug has personal pronouns for three numbers (singular, dual, plural) but not gender distinction.

Person Singular Dual Plural
1st na da di
2nd nu ya yi
3rd hu tu mu

These pronouns can take four different suffixes: the genitive -l or -le, the emphatic -ni, the comitative -noy and the contrastive -v.[12]

Numerals

Numerals in Fuyug are very restricted, having only fidan ("one") and yovalo ("two"). The numbers 3, 4 and 5 are composed of 1 and 2:

After five English numerals are used (numbers less than five often do so as well). The quantifier hukas ("a lot") is also used after three.[13]

References

  1. Fuyug at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Fuyug". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. (Bradshaw 2007, p. 2)
  4. (Bradshaw 2007, p. 14)
  5. 1 2 (Bradshaw 2007, p. 17)
  6. (Bradshaw 2007, p. 18)
  7. 1 2 (Bradshaw 2007, p. 15)
  8. (Bradshaw 2007, p. 16)
  9. (Bradshaw 2007, pp. 21–24)
  10. (Bradshaw 2007, p. 24)
  11. (Bradshaw 2007, pp. 24–27)
  12. (Bradshaw 2007, pp. 39–41)
  13. (Bradshaw 2007, p. 45)
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