Aghu, or Central Awyu, 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 ...
of
South Papua
South Papua, officially the South Papua Province (), is an Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province located in the southern portion of Western New Guinea, Papua, following the borders of the Papuan customary region of Anim Ha. Formally establ ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. It may actually be two languages, depending on one's criteria for a 'language'. The two varieties are:
Mappi River Awyu (Aghu) and
Pasue River Awyu (Nohon, Mitak).
Phonology
The phonology of the Aghu language:
The front rounded vowel /y/ is unusual among local languages in Indonesia, but it can also be found in few others such as
Ulumanda’. At the ends of words, vowels may appear both long and nasalized. This occurs historically where there was a final nasal /m/ or /n/. Within words, rather than nasal vowels there are sequences of vowel plus nasal consonant which matches the articulation of the following consonant. Thus nasal vowels may be analyzed as /Vn/ or /VN/.
References
Further reading
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External links
Aghu at the Awyu–Ndumut research group at VU University AmsterdamOLAC resources in and about the Aghu languageOLAC resources in and about the Central Awyu languageOLAC resources in and about the Jair Awyu languageOLAC resources in and about the North Awyu language
Languages of Western New Guinea
Awyu–Dumut languages
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