Aghu language

Aghu
Central Awyu
RegionSouth Papua, Indonesia
Native speakers
(<14,000 cited 1987–2002)[1]
Dialects
  • Aghu
  • Nohon
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
ahh – Aghu
awu – Central Awyu
Glottologmapp1234

Aghu, or Central Awyu, is a Papuan language of South Papua, Indonesia. It may actually be two languages, depending on one's criteria for a 'language'. The two varieties are:[2] Mappi River Awyu (Aghu) and Pasue River Awyu (Nohon, Mitak).[citation needed]

Phonology

The phonology of the Aghu language:[3]

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n
Plosive voiceless p t k
voiced b d~ɾ ɡ
Fricative f s~ʃ x
Approximant w j
Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i y u
Mid ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː
Open a

The front rounded vowel /y/ is unusual among local languages in Indonesia. At the ends of words, vowels may appear both long and nasalized. This occurs historically where there was a final nasal /m/ or /n/. Within words, rather than nasal vowels there are sequences of vowel plus nasal consonant which matches the articulation of the following consonant. Thus nasal vowels may be analyzed as /Vn/ or /VN/.

References

  1. ^ Aghu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
    Central Awyu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "Awyu". newguineaworld. Archived from the original on 2020-02-12. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  3. ^ van den Heuvel, Wilco (2016). Aghu: Annotated Texts With Grammatical Introduction and Vocabulary Lists. A-PL 33. Canberra: Australian National University. hdl:1885/111412. ISBN 9781922185358.

Further reading

  • Drabbe, P. (1957). Spraakkunst van het Aghu-dialect van de Awju-taal (in Dutch). Den Haag: M. Nijhoff.
  • Voorhoeve, C. L. (1980) [1975]. Languages of Irian Jaya, Checklist: Preliminary Classification, Language Maps, Wordlists. Series B - No. 31. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 28, 98. hdl:1885/146481.

External links

  • Aghu at the Awyu–Ndumut research group at VU University Amsterdam
  • OLAC resources in and about the Aghu language
  • OLAC resources in and about the Central Awyu language
  • OLAC resources in and about the Jair Awyu language
  • OLAC resources in and about the North Awyu language


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