Last Updated: 2020-06-24
Background
Language Family: Trans-New Guinea / Northern / Border / Waris
- Amanab is spoken on the Sandaun province of Papua New Guinea.
Phonology
Consonants
- Minch (1992) argues against the presence of /ⁿd/ (p. 107).
- (“Organised Phonology Data: Amanab Language” 2001) argues for /ɸ/ rather than /f/, as well as for a series of /ᵑɡ/ and /ɣ/ rather than /ŋ/ and /ᵑɡ/ (p. 1).
- Palmer (2017) presents a general consonant inventory of the Border family, rather than for Amanab specifically, so his inventory features a handful of differences from the other sources.
- (“Organised Phonology Data: Amanab Language” 2001) includes /l/ as a phoneme (p. 1), but it seems to actually be an allophone of /ɾ/ - later in the same paper, the author lists [l] and [ɾ] as occurring in free variation (p. 4).
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops
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p ᵐb
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t ⁿd
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k ᵑɡ
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Fricatives
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f
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s
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h
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ŋ
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Flaps
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ɾ
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Approximants
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w
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j
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Note: Phonemes to the left of each cell are voiceless and phonemes to the right of each cell are voiced.
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Vowels
- (“Organised Phonology Data: Amanab Language” 2001) argues for /ɑ/ and /ɛ/ rather than /a/ and /e/ (p. 1).
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i
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u
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Mid
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e
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o
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Low
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a
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Alphabet
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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Comment
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a
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/a/
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b
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/ᵐb/
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d
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/ⁿd/
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rare
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e
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/e/
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f
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/f/
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g
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/ᵑɡ/
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h
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/h/
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i
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/i/
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k
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/k/
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l
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/ɾ/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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o
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/o/
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p
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/p/
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r
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/ɾ/
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s
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/s/
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t
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/t/
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u
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/u/
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w
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/w/
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y
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/j/
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Digraph
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ng
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/ŋ/
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Lenition Rules
- Word-medial /ᵑɡ/ sometimes spirantizes to [ɣ] (“Organised Phonology Data: Amanab Language” 2001, 4).
- Word-medial /f/ sometimes voices to [v] word-medially (ibid.).
- /x/, which is attested in other languages of the Border family (Palmer 2017, 327), has historically debuccalized to [h] in Amanab. However, Amanab /h/ can surface as [x] word-finally (“Organised Phonology Data: Amanab Language” 2001, 4).
Misc. Rules
- Word-final /k/ has a lateral release (“Organised Phonology Data: Amanab Language” 2001, 4).
References
Minch, Andy. 1992. “Amanab Grammar Essentials.” In Namia and Amanab Grammar Essentials, edited by John R. Roberts, 99–173. Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Palmer, Bill. 2017. The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. De Gruyter Mouton.