Last Updated: 2020-01-09
COMPROMISED: conflation among /a/, /æ/, and /ɘ/, between /ɘ/ and /o/, and between /e/ and /ɘ/; ambiguity among long vowels; ambiguity related to whether phonemic (labialized) clusters are always realized as such, ambiguity between word-medial phonetic prenasalized stops and voiced (and voiceless stops)
Background
Language Family: Torricelli / Kombio-Arapesh / Arapesh
- Mufian is spoken in the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea.
Phonology
Consonants
- Conrad, Lukas, and Alungum (1977) do not include the labialized consonants as part of the phonemic inventory, but note that they contrast with their non-labialized counterparts (p. 3). Given this and that other sources (e.g. Conrad 1992; Conrad, Lukas, and Alungum 1978) include them, I have chosen to include them below.
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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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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops
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p b
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t d
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k kʷ ɡ ɡʷ
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ʔ ʔʷ
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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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Approximants
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w
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l
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are voiced. Phonemes that have the diacritic (ʷ) are labialized.
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Vowels
- Conrad (1992) as well as Conrad, Lukas, and Alungum (1977) include /ə/ as a phoneme in Mufian (p. 2; p. 3); however, I’ve opted for /ɘ/ given that Conrad, Lukas, and Alungum (1978) describe it as a high to mid-central vowel (p. 90).
- Adjacent vowels are interpreted as sequences (Conrad, Lukas, and Alungum 1977, 6–7).
- The documentation for long vowels is ambiguous. Conrad, Lukas, and Alungum (1977) state that they are rather infrequent, citing length for only /i/, /a/, and /æ/ (contrastive occurrences for only /a/ and /æ/) (Conrad, Lukas, and Alungum 1977, 9–10, 23). Conrad (1992) also lists long vowels, but for /a/, /e/, and /æ/ (p. 2); however, they note that long vowels are transcribed just as short vowels are. Because they are rather infrequent and have a low functional load, I have opted not to include them.
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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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ɘ
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o
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Low
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æ
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a
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Alphabet
- The digraphs ⟨mb⟩ and ⟨nd⟩ transcribe to word-medial phonetic prenasalization, so I will transcribe them to /b/ and /d/ respectively (Conrad, Lukas, and Alungum 1977, 6). The prenasalized /ɡ/ is transcribed as ⟨g⟩, so it poses no correction.
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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/; /æ/; /ɘ/
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/a/: default in the rules
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b
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/b/
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d
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/d/
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e
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/e/; /ɘ/
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/e/: default in the rules
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f
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/f/
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g
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/ɡ/
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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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/l/
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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/; /ɘ/
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/o/: default in the rules
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p
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/p/
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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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’
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/ʔ/
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Digraph
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mb
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/b/
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nd
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/d/
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gw
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/ɡʷ/
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kw
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/kʷ/
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’w
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/ʔʷ/
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Misc. Rules
- Voiceless consonants are aspirated word-finally (Conrad, Lukas, and Alungum 1977, 12–13).
References
Conrad, Robert J. 1992. “Mufian Organised Phonology Data.” SIL.
Conrad, Robert J., Joshua Lukas, and John Alungum. 1977. “Preliminary Phonology of Mufian (Southern Arapesh).”
———. 1978. “Some Muhiang Grammatical Notes.” In Miscellaneous Papers on Dobu and Arapesh, edited by Richard Loving, 25:89–130. Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. http://www.sil.org/pacific/png/abstract.asp?id=15292.