Western Dani, or Laani, is the most populous

Papuan language The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogra ...

in Indonesian New Guinea. It is spoken by the Lani people in the

province of Papua A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outs ...

. The

Swart Valley Swart is an Afrikaans, Dutch language, Dutch and German language, German surname meaning "black" (spelled ''zwart'' in modern Dutch). Variations on it are ''de Swart'', ''Swarte'', ''de Swarte'', ''Swarts'', Zwart, de Zwart, and Zwarts. People with ...

tribes are called ''Oeringoep'' and ''Timorini'' in literature from the 1920s, but those names are no longer used.

Phonology

The phonology of the Western Dani language: At the beginning of words, stops sound aspirated. An intervocalic /ɣ/ is pronounced as , and a /ɹ/ before a high vowel becomes a fricative . Vowels /i, u, ɒ/ have allophones, ,

References

Dani languages Languages of western New Guinea {{papuan-lang-stub