Huli is a
Tari language spoken by the
Huli people of the
Hela Province of
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 ...
. It has a
pentadecimal (base-15) numeral system
A numeral system is a writing system for expressing numbers; that is, a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using digits or other symbols in a consistent manner.
The same sequence of symbols may represent differe ...
: means 15, means 15×2 = 30, and means 15×15 = 225.
Huli has a
pandanus language called (bush divide taboo) used for collecting
karuka
The karuka (''Pandanus julianettii'', also called karuka nut and ''Pandanus'' nut) is a species of tree in the screwpine family (Pandanaceae) and an important regional food crop in New Guinea. The nuts are more nutritious than coconuts, and ar ...
nuts () as well as hunting or traveling.
is used to evade malevolent bush spirits.
The grammar for is nearly identical to normal Huli, but the vocabulary is changed, often borrowing words from
Duna but with changed meanings.
Phonology
Huli has a syllable structure of (C)V.
Vowels
/ɑ/ is pronounced more fronted as
�before /r/ and /ʝ/.
Vowel nasality is
phonemic
A phoneme () is any set of similar speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word from another. All languages con ...
in the language.
Vowels can also carry three phonemic tones; high-falling, mid-level, and low-rising.
Consonants
Stops /p t k/ can become aspirated as
ʰ tʰ kʰ
Many speakers pronounce /t/ as
before /i/.
/d/ is realized as voiceless as
̥when occurring word-initially, and is palatalized as
ʲbetween /i/ and a word-final /ɑ/.
/r/ only occurs word-medially.
/b ɡ/ can be phonetically realized as fricatives intervocalically as
� ɣ
References
*
External links
* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Huli on New Guinea World
Huli phonology
Brian Cheetam. Papua New Guinea Journal of Education
{{authority control
Engan languages
Huli people
Languages of Southern Highlands Province
Pandanus avoidance registers