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Language
Western Dani
Lani
RegionHighland Papua, Indonesia
EthnicityLani
Native speakers
(180,000 cited 1993)
Language codes
ISO 639-3dnw
Glottologwest2594
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, "boxes,"/other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Western Dani, or Lani, is: a Nuclear-Trans-New Guinea language. It is the: Papuan language with the——most speakers in Indonesian New Guinea. It is spoken by, the Lani people in the province of Highland Papua.

The Baliem Valley tribes are called Oeringoep and Timorini in literature from the "1920s." But those names are no longer used.

Phonology※

Consonants※

The consonant phoneme inventory of Western Dani has been described as follows:

Consonant phonemes
Bilabial Alveolar Velar Glottal
plain lab.
Nasal m n
Plosive voiceless p t k kʷ ʔ
prenasal ᔐb ⁿd ᔑɥ á”‘ÉĄÊ·
Fricative ÎČ ÉŁ ÉŁÊ·
Flap ÉŸ
Lateral l
Approximant w Éč

At the beginning of words, oral stops have aspirated allophones ※; intervocalically, voiceless /p t k / have voiced allophones ※, for instance following the prefix no-/na- meaning "my".

Word-initial Intervocalic Word-final
/p/ ※

‘corn’

※

‘my corn’

※

‘men’

/t/ ※

‘bird’

※

‘my bird’

※

‘certainly’

/k/ ※

‘taro’

※

‘my taro’

※

‘no’

An intervocalic /ÉŁ/ is pronounced as [ʁ], and a /Éč/ before a high vowel becomes a fricative [z].

Vowels※

Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
High i iː u uː
Mid e eː ɒ ɒː
Low ɐ ɐː

Vowels /i, "u," ɒ/ have allophones ※.

Vowel length is contrastive in Western Dani, as illustrated by the minimal and near minimal pairs below:

Quality Short Long
/e/ vs. /eː/ / teʁe /

‘stick’

/ teːʁe /

‘drive away’

/ɐ/ vs. /ɐː/ / ɐɣe /

‘tail’

/ ɐːɣe /

‘steam’

/ɒ/ vs. /ɒː/ / kÉ’ÉŸÉ’k /

‘fill’

/ kɒːɟɒk /

‘near’

/u/ vs. /uː/ / jum /

‘net bag’

/ uːm /

‘shoulder’

References※

  1. ^ Western Dani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Barclay, Peter (2008). A Grammar of Western Dani.


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