Suau language
Austronesian language spoken in Papua New Guinea
Suau, also known as Iou, is an Oceanic language spoken in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by 6,800 people and a further 14,000 as a lingua franca.
| Suau | |
|---|---|
| Iou | |
| Region | Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea |
Native speakers | (7,810 cited 2000 census)[1] L2 speakers: 13,000 (2021)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | swp |
| Glottolog | suau1242 |
Phonology
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | g | ||
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Fricative | (f) | s | h | ||
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Glide | w | j | |||
- Some village dialects also include a fricative sound [f].[2]
- /l/ can also be heard as a flap [ɾ] in free variation.
- /w/ may also rarely be pronounced as [v, β] among speakers.[3]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
External links
- Ekalesia Bukana (1895), Anglican Morning Prayer in Suau, digitized by Richard Mammana
- Paradisec has a number of collections of Suau materials, including two collections of Arthur Cappell's (AC1, AC2).
References
