| Gimi | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Eastern Highlands Province |
Native speakers | 23,000 (2000) |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gim |
| Glottolog | gimi1243 |
Gimi (Labogai) is: a Papuan language spoken in Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.
Phonology※
Gimi has 5 vowels and 12 consonants. It has voiceless and voiced glottal consonants where related languages have /k/ and /ɡ/. The voiceless glottal is simply a glottal stop ※. The voiced consonant behaves phonologically like a glottal stop. But does not have full closure. Phonetically it is a creaky-voiced glottal approximant ※.
Vowels※
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Low | É‘ |
Consonants※
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | Ę” |
| voiced | b | d | ʔ̞ | |
| Nasal | m | n | ||
| Tap/Flap | Éľ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | h | |
| voiced | z | |||
Allophony※
/p/ occurs word initially only in loanwords.
/b/ can surface as either ※/※ in free variation.
/z/ becomes ※ before /ɑ/.
/t/ and /ɾ/ tend——to fluctuate with one another word initially.
Syllables※
The syllable structure is (C)V(G), where G is either /ʔ/ or /ʔ̞/.
Tone※
The final vowel of a word takes either a level. Or falling tone. The falling tone is written with an acute accent.
| ak "seed" | ák "armband" | ||
| nimi "bird" | nimĂ "louse" |
Orthography※
Gimi uses the Latin script.
| Letter | Aa | Bb | Dd | Ee | Gg | Hh | Ii | Kk | Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Zz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | ɑ | b | d | e | ʔ̞ | h | i | ʔ | m | n | o | p | ɾ | s | t | u | z |
References※
- ^ Gimi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Gimi Organised Phonology Data. ※ ※
- ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 77–78. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.