Nii Language
Nii is a Trans–New Guinea language of the Chimbu–Wahgi branch spoken in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Nii has an unusual number of lateral consonant A lateral is a consonant in which the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth. An example of a lateral consonant is the English ''L'', as in ''Larr ...s: a typical dental approximant, , plus both dental and velar lateral fricatives, and , which are optionally voiced between vowels and do not occur in initial position.Foley, 1986:63, ''The Papuan languages of New Guinea'' References Further reading * Chimbu–Wahgi languages Languages of Western Highlands Province {{PapuaNewGuinea-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia (a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia). Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The country is the world's third largest island country, with an area of . At the national level, after being ruled by three external powers since 1884, including nearly 60 years of Australian administration starting during World War I, Papua New Guinea established its sovereignty in 1975. It became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1975 with Elizabeth II as its queen. It also became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations in its own right. There are 839 known languages of Papua New Guinea, one of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Western Highlands Province
Western Highlands is a province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Mount Hagen. The province covers an area of 4,299 km2, and there are 362,850 inhabitants (2011 census), making the Western Highlands the most densely populated province (apart from the National Capital District). Tea and coffee are grown in the Western Highlands. Split to create Jiwaka Province In July 2009, Parliament passed legislation to create two new provinces by 2012. One of these was to be created by removing Jimi District, North Waghi District, and the South Waghi part of Anglimp-South Waghi District from the Western Highlands Province to form the new Jiwaka Province. "Jiwaka" is a portmanteau combining the first two letters each of Jimi, Waghi and Kambia. Jiwaka Province officially came into being on 17 May 2012. Economy The Western Highlands economy is primarily based on coffee. Coffee is grown on plantations and small-holder blocks. They are picked, dried and processed for export. In a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trans–New Guinea Languages
Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands ‒ corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as parts of Indonesia. Trans–New Guinea is the third-largest language family in the world by number of languages. The core of the family is considered to be established, but its boundaries and overall membership are uncertain. The languages are spoken by around 3 million people. There have been three main proposals as to its internal classification. History of the proposal Although Papuan languages for the most part are poorly documented, several of the branches of Trans–New Guinea have been recognized for some time. The Eleman languages were first proposed by S. Ray in 1907, parts of Marind were recognized by Ray and JHP Murray in 1918, and the Rai Coast languages in 1919, again by Ray. The precursor of the Trans–New Guinea family was Stephen Wurm's 1960 proposal of an East New Guinea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chimbu–Wahgi Languages
The Chimbu–Wahgi languages are a language family sometimes included in the Trans–New Guinea proposal. Languages There is little doubt that the Chimbu–Wahgi family is valid. The languages are:Usher, TimothySimbu-Western Highlands ''New Guinea World''. *Chimbu–Wahgi family **Chimbu (Simbu) branch **: Kuman (Chimbu), Chuave, Nomane, Golin–Dom, Salt-Yui, Sinasina **Western Highlands ***Jimi River ***: Maring, Narak– Kandawo *** Wahgi Valley ***: Nii, Wahgi, North Wahgi (= Yu We?) ***Mount Hagen **** Melpa (Medlpa) ****Kaugel River: Imbo Ungu, Umbu-Ungu, Mbo-Ung (Bo-Ung) Phonology Several of the Chimbu–Wahgi languages have uncommon lateral consonants: see Nii, Wahgi, and Kuman for examples. Chimbu–Wahgi languages have contrastive tone. Pronouns The singular pronouns are: : Dual *-l and plural *-n reflect Trans–New Guinea forms. Evolution Middle Wahgi reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma: *''ama'' ‘mother’ < *am(a,i) *''amu'' â ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wahgi Languages
Waghi (also spelled Wahgi) may refer to: Geography *North Waghi Rural LLG *South Waghi Rural LLG *North Waghi District *Anglimp-South Waghi District *Waghi River Languages *Wahgi language *Chimbu–Wahgi languages The Chimbu–Wahgi languages are a language family sometimes included in the Trans–New Guinea proposal. Languages There is little doubt that the Chimbu–Wahgi family is valid. The languages are:Usher, TimothySimbu-Western Highlands ''New Gui ... People * Waghi Tumbe {{dab ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lateral Consonant
A lateral is a consonant in which the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth. An example of a lateral consonant is the English ''L'', as in ''Larry''. Lateral consonants contrast with central consonants, in which the airstream flows through the center of the mouth. For the most common laterals, the tip of the tongue makes contact with the upper teeth (see dental consonant) or the upper gum (see alveolar consonant), but there are many other possible places for laterals to be made. The most common laterals are approximant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...s and belong to the class of liquid consonant, liquids, but lateral fricative consonant, fricatives and affricate co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Voiceless Alveolar Lateral Fricative
The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral fricatives is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K. The symbol is called "belted l" and is distinct from "l with tilde", , which transcribes a different sound, the velarized (or pharynÉ¡ealized) alveolar lateral approximant, often called "dark L". Some scholars also posit the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant distinct from the fricative. The approximant may be represented in the IPA as . Features Features of the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative: Occurrence The sound is fairly common among indigenous languages of the Americas, such as Nahuatl and Navajo, and in North Caucasian languages, such as Avar. It is also found in African languages, such as Zulu, and Asian languages, such as Chukchi, some Yue dialects like Taishanese, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Voiceless Velar Lateral Fricative
The voiceless velar lateral fricative is a rare speech sound. As one element of an affricate, it is found for example in Zulu and Xhosa (see velar lateral ejective affricate). However, a simple fricative has only been reported from a few languages in the Caucasus and New Guinea. Archi, a Northeast Caucasian language of Dagestan, has four voiceless velar lateral fricatives: plain , labialized , fortis , and labialized fortis . Although clearly fricatives, these are further forward than velars in most languages, and might better be called ''prevelar''. Archi also has a voiced fricative, as well as a voiceless and several ejective lateral velar affricates, but no alveolar lateral fricatives or affricates. In New Guinea, some of the Chimbu–Wahgi languages such as Melpa, Middle Wahgi, and Nii, have a voiceless velar lateral fricative, which they write with a double-bar el (â± , ⱡ). This sound also appears in syllable coda position as an allophone of the voiced velar later ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |