Maisin language

Maisin
Region Oro Province, Papua New Guinea
Ethnicity Maisin people
Native speakers
2,600 (2000 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 mbq
Glottolog mais1250[2]

Maisin (or Maisan) is a language of Papua New Guinea with both Austronesian and Papuan features. The Austronesian elements are those of the Nuclear Papuan Tip languages. The Papuan element is Binanderean or Dagan. It is spoken by the Maisin people of Oro Province.

Phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs

Front Back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a

Diphthongs

Ending with /i/ Ending with /e/ Ending with /a/ Ending with /o/ Ending with /u/
Starting with /i/ /ii/ /ia/
Starting with /e/ /ei/ /ee/ /eu/
Starting with /a/ /ai/ /aa/ /au/
Starting with /o/ /oi/ /oo/ /ou/
Starting with /u/ /ua/ /uu/

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
Stop Voiceless p t k (kʷ)
Voiced b d a
Nasal m n (ŋ)
Fricative Voiceless ɸ ɸʷ s
Voiced β ʝ
Flap ɾ
Approximant j w

[ŋ] and [kʷ] are not phonemic, but are distinguished in the orthography.

Phonotactics

Syllables can begin and end with up to one consonant each. I.e., English wrong /rɔŋ/ would be an acceptable word, but strength /streŋθ/ would not. Words can only end in either a vowel or [ŋ]. The vowels /u/ and /o/ never occur word-initially. /β/ never occurs before /o/ or /u/.

Writing system

A a B b D d E e F f Fw fw G g I i J j K k M m
/a/ /b/ /d/ /e/ /ɸ/ /ɸʷ/ /a/ /i/ /ʝ/ /k/ /m/
N n O o R r S s T t U u V v W w Y y Kw kw Ŋ ŋ
[n] /o/ /ɾ/ /s/ /t/ /u/ /β/ /w/ /j/ [kʷ] [ŋ]

Literacy varies from 20% to 80% in different areas.

See also

References

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

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, September 29, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.