Mian is an Ok language spoken in the Telefomin district of the

Sandaun province Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea. It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population of 248,411 (2011 census). The capita ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

by the

Mian people The Mian people (Mianmin) are a people living in the Telefomin district of the Sandaun province in Papua New Guinea. The number of Mian is 3,500, based on the number of speakers of their language, Mian. The Mian are living in small villages ...

. It has some 3,500 speakers spread across two

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

s: ''West Mian'' (a.k.a. ''Suganga''), with approximately 1,000 speakers in around Yapsiei, and ''East Mian'', with approximately 2,500 speakers in and around Timeilmin, Temsakmin, Sokamin, Gubil, Fiak and Hotmin.

Phonology

Phonologically, Mian is very similar to other

Papuan languages The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non- Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogr ...

in the size of its phoneme inventory, but it nevertheless has some peculiarities, such as its contrast between a plain and a

pharyngealized Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound. IPA symbols In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indic ...

ˤ It is also a

tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

Vowels

Mian has six

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...

s, including the

open front vowel. Mian also has four

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...

s: /ɛ/ is realized as �in word-initial low-tone syllables, �elsewhere. /a/ is realized as �in unaccented syllables, �in word-initial low-tone syllables beginning with a consonant, elsewhere. /o/ is realized as �in word-initial low-tone syllables and in syllables ending in a voiceless

plosive In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...

or � elsewhere. /u/ is realized as �in word-initial low-tone syllables, elsewhere.

Consonants

Mian has 16

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced w ...

s: is realized as word-initially, or ̚syllable-finally, elsewhere. : Examples: banǒn ��bànǒn''lower arm'', mǎab ǎˤːp̚''frog'', teběl ʰɛ̀bɛ̌l''ant'' /t/ is realized as ʰbefore vowels, ʰor ̚syllable-finally. : Examples: tam ʰàm''temple'', mát át̚''gall bladder'' /k/ is realized as ʰbefore vowels, ʰor ̚syllable-finally, sometimes between vowels, ʰbefore ˤ : Examples: kemin ʰèmìn''to do'', manggěk àŋgɛ̌k̚''bee'', okok �xòk̚''work'', kaawá ʰàˤwá''steel axe'' /ɡ/ is realized as ��ɡword-initially, �elsewhere. : Examples: gát ��ɡát̚''mole'', manggěk àŋɡɛ̌k̚''bee'' /ɡʷ/ is realized as ��ɡʷword-initially, �ʷelsewhere. : Examples: gwaán ��ɡʷàán''spider'', gwalgwal ��ɡʷàlɡʷàl''twins''

Tones

Mian has five

tonemes Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

: The tones of Mian are very complex, as they are subject to various phonological processes, and furthermore, they can be used for indicating various

grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular variety (linguistics), speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the go ...

aspects, especially in connection with verbs, where the tones are crucial for understanding. Consider the two verb forms below, being non-hodiernal and

imperfective The imperfective (abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ge ...

respectively: : dolâbībe òlábíbè''I wrote'' : dolâbibe òlábìbè''I am writing''

Nouns

Large objects in Mianmin are feminine, while small objects are masculine.

References

Digital resources

* {{Languages of Papua New Guinea Languages of Sandaun Province Languages of East Sepik Province Ok languages Tonal languages