Nama language (Papuan)

Nama
Nama
Region	Western Province (Papua New Guinea)
Native speakers	1,200 (2018)
Language family	Yam Nambu Nama; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nmx
Glottolog	nama1266

Nama (pronounced [ˈnəmə], or Noraia) is a Yam language spoken in Western Province, Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

		Labial		Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
		plain	lab.	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	plain	lab.
Nasal		m	mʷ	n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	(p)		t			k	kʷ
	voiced	b		d	d͡ʒ		ɡ	(ɡʷ)
	prenasal	ᵐb	ᵐbʷ	ⁿd	ⁿd͡ʒ		ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
Fricative		ɸ	ɸʷ	s			ɣ
Rhotic				r
Lateral				l
Approximant						j	w

Sounds /p/ and /ɡʷ/ only occur marginally^{[elaboration needed]}.
Sounds /t, d, ⁿd/ may range in articulation, varying from dental [t̪, d̪, ⁿd̪] to alveolar [t, d, ⁿd].
/r/ can be heard as a tap [ɾ] when in rapid speech and in consonant clusters.
/ɸ/ can become voiced as [β] when intervocalically or word-finally.
/ɣ/ can also be heard as [ɰ] in some contexts^{[what contexts?]}.
Sounds /n, r/ can occur as geminates [nː, rː].

↑ Nama at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
↑ Siegel, Jeff (2023). A Grammar of Nama: A Papuan Language of Southern New Guinea. De Gruyter.

v t e Yam languages
Tonda	Upper Morehead Anta Komnzo Wára Wérè Kémä Kánchá Ránmo Mblafe Warta Thuntai Aramba Nggarna Rema Smerki Tamer Ngkontar Ngkolmpu Bedi Ngkolmpu
Nambu	Nen Nama Namat Nambo Neme Dre Namo Len
Other	Yei