Mapos Buang language

Mapos Buang, also known as Mapos or Central Buang, is an Oceanic language in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

Mapos Buang has a larger sound inventory than is typical of most Austronesian languages. Notable is the existence of a phonemic contrast between a velar nasal and a uvular nasal, which is extremely rare among the world's languages. Along with this, its phonology is unusually symmetrical compared to most other languages.

Vowels

* [ə] is a prominent feature of Buang phonology, but is not contrastive. Thus both it and [e] are represented with ⟨e⟩.

Vowel length is shown in the orthography by doubling the letter.

Consonants

*/w/ is a bilabial approximant or semivowel with no co-articulated velar component. It is placed in the labio-velar series of the chart as it fills a gap in this position. /β/ is a voiced bilabial fricative.

Orthography is the same as in the IPA when nothing is shown.

References


Uses material from the Wikipedia article Mapos Buang language, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.