Vanimo (Wanimo, Manimo) is a Skou language of

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 ...

which extends from Leitre to Wutung on the Papua New Guinea - Indonesian border.

Phonology

The Duso dialect of Vanimo is unusual in not having any phonemic

velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive an ...

s, though it does have phonetic .Malcolm Ross, 1980, "Some elements of Vanimo, a New Guinea tone language" The vowels of Dumo dialect are, All occur nasalized, varying phonetically between a nasal vowel and a vowel followed by consonantal . Nasal /u/ may be realized as a syllabic . In Dumo, there are no velar consonants apart from this (and also as noted below). The other consonants are, Consonant clusters are /pl, bl, ml, ɲv, hv, hm, hn, hɲ, hj/ (hv and hm may be allophones). /ɲv/ is pronounced . There are no coda consonants apart from . do occur in Dusö dialect. They correspond to or zero in Dumo. Dumo syllables may have either a 'high' or a 'long' tone. There is strict syllable timing, a 'long'-toned syllable takes the entire time allotted for a syllable, whereas with a high-tone or atonic syllable, there is a slight gap between it and the following syllable. Ross writes high tone with a ''grave'' accent, and long tone with an acute accent. A syllable with a nasal vowel / coda is not necessarily long, it may have any of the three tones.

Phonology

References

Further reading