Numèè (''Naa Numee, Naa-Wee''), or Kwényi (''Kwenyii''), is a New Caledonian language, the one spoken at the southern tip of the island, as well as on the Isle of Pines offshore. Despite its name, it is probably not the language that gave its name to the capital of New Caledonia,

Nouméa Nouméa () is the capital and largest city of the French Sui generis collectivity, special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest Francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main i ...

; that seems to have been its close relative Ndrumbea, which used to be spoken there.

Phonology

Like its close relative Ndrumbea, Numèè is a

tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasi ...

, with three contrasting tones, high, mid, and low.

Vowels

Numèè, or rather its dialect ''Kwênyii'', has a total of 35 vowels, all

monophthong A monophthong ( ) is a pure vowel sound, or one whose articulation at beginning and end is relatively fixed, with the tongue moving neither up nor down and neither forward nor backward towards a new position of articulation. A monophthong can be ...

s: 17 short, and 18 long.See ,

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

, p.105.

Consonants

Kwênyii has 26 consonants.''Kwényïï''
- homepage of Académie des Langues Kanak.

Notes

References

* New Caledonian languages Languages of New Caledonia Tonal languages in non-tonal families {{SOceanic-lang-stub