Last Updated: 2020-01-07
Background
Language Family: Sepik-Ramu / Sepik / Upper Sepik / Iwam
- Sepik Iwam is spoken in the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea.
Phonology
Consonants
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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 b
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t d
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k ɡ
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Fricatives
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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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Trills
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r
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Approximants
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w
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j
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are voiced.
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Vowels
- Adjacent vowels (including like-vowels) are interpreted as sequences (“Organised Phonology Data Sepik Iwam Language” 2011, 3).
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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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ɨ
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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
- The documentation is somewhat unclear regarding the phonemic status of voiceless /w/, /m/, /n/, and /y/. Laszlo and Rehburg (1970) indicate that the language has these voiceless variants (p. 8), but just like (“Organised Phonology Data Sepik Iwam Language” 2011) and Laycock (1965), they do not actually specify them as phonemes (p. 1; p. 115). It appears that they are consonant sequences (/hw/, /hm/, /hn/, and /hy/) that result in phonetic devoicing. Orthographically, these combinations (/hw/, /hm/, /hn/, and /hy/) are written ⟨wh⟩, ⟨mh⟩, ⟨nh⟩, and ⟨yh⟩, respectively (“Organised Phonology Data Sepik Iwam Language” 2011, 4; Laszlo and Rehburg 1970, 31). The reason for a following rather than a preceding ⟨h⟩ is to distinguish between the sequence /hw/ and the labialized realization [hʷ]; to maintain consistency, all “voiceless” consonants are written with a following ⟨h⟩.
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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a
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/a/
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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/
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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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ɨ
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/ɨ/
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k
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/k/
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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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/r/
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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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Lenition Rules
- Word-medially, /p/ may become voiced, fricated, or voiced and fricated (“Organised Phonology Data Sepik Iwam Language” 2011, 4).
- Word medially, /k/ may become [x] or [ɣ] intervocalically (ibid.).
Misc. Rules
- /r/ varies freely with [l] (“Organised Phonology Data Sepik Iwam Language” 2011, 4).
References
Laszlo, Marilyn, and Judy Rehburg. 1970. “Tentative Phonemic Statement (Papua New Guinea).”
Laycock, Donald C. 1965. “Three Upper Sepik Phonologies.” Oceanic Linguistics.
“Organised Phonology Data Sepik Iwam Language.” 2011.