Shiaxa language

Shiaxa
Shiaxa
South Awyu
Yenimu
Region	Papua, Indonesia
Native speakers	13,000 including Edera[Ethn is broken again] (2002)
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Greater Awyu Awyu–Dumut Awyu Shiaxa; ; ; ;
Dialects	Shiaxa; Yenimu;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	aws
Glottolog	sout2941

Shiaxa (Sjiagha) and Yenimu (Jénimu, Oser), together known as South Awyu, are a Papuan language or languages of Papua, Indonesia. Whether they constitute one language or two depends on one's criteria for a 'language'. The two varieties are,

Bamgi River Awyu (Oser, Yenimu/Jénimu)
Ia River Awyu (Shiaxa/Sjìagha)

Phonology

Consonants
		Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	k
Plosive	voiced	b	d	ɡ
Fricative		f	s	x
Tap			ɾ
Glide		w		j

Word-initial voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/ may have prenasalized allophones [ᵐb, ⁿd, ᵑɡ] when the preceding word within a sentence ends in a vowel.
/s/ may have an allophone of [ɕ] when preceding /i/, and may also have an affricate allophone [ts] in word-initial positions.
/x/ may be voiced as [ɣ] in intervocalic positions.
/n/ when in word-final position, may nasalize a preceding vowel [Ṽ].
In the Yenimu dialect, /ɾ/ may also have lateral allophones as [l] or [ɺ].

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

References

↑ Shiaxa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
↑ New Guinea World - Awyu
↑ Voorhoeve, C. L. (2001). Proto-Awyu-Dumut phonology II. In Andrew Pawley and Malcolm Ross and Darrell Tryon (eds.), The Boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian Linguistics in Honor of Tom Dutton: Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. pp. 361–381.

External links

Shiaxa at the Awyu–Ndumut research group at VU University Amsterdam:

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[e18-1] Shiaxa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] New Guinea World - Awyu

[3] Voorhoeve, C. L. (2001). Proto-Awyu-Dumut phonology II. In Andrew Pawley and Malcolm Ross and Darrell Tryon (eds.), The Boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian Linguistics in Honor of Tom Dutton: Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. pp. 361–381.