Maisin language
Encyclopedia
Maisin is a language of Papua New Guinea
with both Austronesian
and Papuan
features. The Austronesian elements are those of the Nuclear Papuan Tip languages. The Papuan element is Binanderean
or Dagan
. It is spoken by the Maisin people of Oro Province
.
[ŋ] and [kʷ] are not phonemic
, but are distinguished in the orthography.
Literacy
varies from 20% to 80% in different areas.
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
with both Austronesian
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
and Papuan
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. The term does not presuppose a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.-The...
features. The Austronesian elements are those of the Nuclear Papuan Tip languages. The Papuan element is Binanderean
Binanderean languages
The Binanderean languages are a family and part of the Trans–New Guinea languages family in the classifications of Stephen Wurm and Malcolm Ross . They are found along the north/east coast of the "Bird's Tail" of New Guinea, and appear to be a recent expansion from the north...
or Dagan
Dagan languages
The Dagan languages are a small family of Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in the "Bird's Tail" of New Guinea, the easternmost Papuan languages on the mainland...
. It is spoken by the Maisin people of Oro Province
Oro Province
Oro Province, formerly Northern Province, is a coastal province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Popondetta. The province covers 22,800 km², and has 133,065 inhabitants ....
.
Monophthongs
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
e | o |
| Low | a | |
Diphthongs
| Ending with /i/ | Ending with /e/ | Ending with /a/ | Ending with /o/ | Ending with /u/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting with /i/ | /ii/ | /ia/ | |||
| Starting with /e/ | /ei/ | /ee/ | /eu/ | ||
| Starting with /a/ | /ai/ | /aa/ | /au/ | ||
| Starting with /o/ | /oi/ | /oo/ | /ou/ | ||
| Starting with /u/ | /ua/ | /uu/ |
Consonants
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | ||||
| Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... |
Voiceless | p | t | k | (kʷ) | ||
| Voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | (ŋ) | ||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
Voiceless | ɸ | ɸʷ | s | |||
| Voiced | β | ʝ | |||||
| Flap Flap consonant In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another.-Contrast with stops and trills:... |
ɾ | ||||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
j | w | |||||
[ŋ] and [kʷ] are not phonemic
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
, but are distinguished in the orthography.
Phonotactics
Syllables can begin and end with up to one consonant each. I.e., English wrong /rɔŋ/ would be an acceptable word, but strength /streŋθ/ would not. Words can only end in either a vowel or [ŋ]. The vowels /u/ and /o/ never occur word-initially. /β/ never occurs before /o/ or /u/.Writing system
| A a | B b | D d | E e | F f | Fw fw | G g | I i | J j | K k | M m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | /b/ | /d/ | /e/ | /ɸ/ | /ɸʷ/ | /ɡ/ | /i/ | /ʝ/ | /k/ | /m/ |
| N n | O o | R r | S s | T t | U u | V v | W w | Y y | Kw kw | Ŋ ŋ Eng (letter) Eng or engma is a letter of the Latin alphabet, used to represent a velar nasal in the written form of some languages and in the International Phonetic Alphabet.-History:... |
| [n] | /o/ | /ɾ/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /β/ | /w/ | /j/ | [kʷ] | [ŋ] |
Literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
varies from 20% to 80% in different areas.