Suau, also known as Iou, is an
Oceanic language
The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...
spoken in the
Milne Bay Province
Milne Bay is a province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Alotau. The province covers 14,345 km² of land and 252,990 km² of sea, within the province there are more than 600 islands, about 160 of which are inhabited. The province has ...
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 ...
. It is spoken by 6,800 people and a further 14,000 as a
lingua franca.
Phonology
* Some village dialects also include a fricative sound
* /l/ can also be heard as a flap
�in free variation.
* /w/ may also rarely be pronounced as
, βamong speakers.
External links
Ekalesia Bukana (1895) Anglican Morning Prayer in Suau, digitized by Richard Mammana
*Paradisec ha
a number of collections of Suau materials including two collections of
Arthur Cappell's
AC1AC2
.
References
Nuclear Papuan Tip languages
Languages of Milne Bay Province
{{PapuanTip-lang-stub