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. The
Swart Valley 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
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