Alekano, or Gahuku (Gahuku-Gama), is a

Papuan language The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...

spoken in Gahuku Rural LLG of

Eastern Highlands Province Eastern Highlands is a highlands province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Goroka. The province covers an area of 11,157 km2, and has a population of 579,825 (2011 census). The province shares a common administrative boundary w ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. There are about 25,000 speakers. Alekano is also known as Gahuku, after the name of the largest clan of speakers, or Gama, after the second largest clan. Calling the language by these names has been rejected by speakers who are not members of these clans. Alekano was proposed as a suitable new name by the linguist Ellis Deibler, and it might be considered the official name by linguists. The name is almost unknown to speakers of the Gahuku and Gama clans. "Alekano" means "bring it". In two closely related languages spoken directly to the northwest, Tokano and Dano, it has the same meaning.Deibler, Ellis W., compiler. Available: 2008; Created: 2008. Dictionaries of Alekano - English and English - Alekano. anuscriptiii, 311 p

Phonology

Alekano has 5 vowels, all roundedness, unrounded, which is exceptional. It has 12 consonants, but is found only in the village Wanima, in derivations or in

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

loanwords.1992. Alekano Organised Phonology Data. anuscript

Vowels

Glottal coda

In Alekano, a syllable may be closed only with a

glottal stop The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...

, as in "enough". That is currently not treated as a consonant, but it is unclear if words written as vowel initial begin with a glottal stop. It is written as an acute accent in the orthography, for example, ''ánesí''.

Consonants

The lateral is initially and between vowels.

Syllables

The most complex syllables are of the form : VV may be a diphthong of , , or followed by or , or of . Other vowels may also occur in sequence ( hiatus).

Tone

Alekano has low and high tones but with a very low

functional load In linguistics and especially phonology, functional load, or phonemic load, is the collection of words that contain a certain pronunciation feature (a phoneme) that makes distinctions between other words. Phonemes with a high functional load distin ...

. HL receives strong stress, LH lesser stress.

Grammar

Alekano is a subject–object–verb (SOV) language.

Orthography

Alekano uses the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

References

External links

Alekano dictionary
*A
open access archive of Alekano audio and video
are available through the Kaipuleohone. {{authority control Kainantu–Goroka languages Languages of Eastern Highlands Province Subject–object–verb languages Tonal languages