Last Updated: 2019-08-08
Background
Language Family: Trans-New Guinea / Main Section / Central and Western / Huon-Finisterre / Huon / Western
- Komba is spoken in Papua New Guinea.
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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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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Affricates
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Fricatives
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s z
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ŋ
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Approximants
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w
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l
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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. Phonemes with the diacritic (ʷ) are labialized.
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Vowels
- Vowel length is phonemic in Komba (N. Southwell and Southwell 1972, 5). Long vowels are represented by duplicate graphemes.
- Adjacent like-vowels can represent one of two series word-initially, which are contrastive (N. Southwell and Southwell 1972, 5; “Organised Phonology Data Komba Language” 1981, 2):
- Voiceless-voiced (represented by an ⟨h⟩ preceding the vowel)
- These will be transcribed as long voiceless vowels (ex. /ḁ ː/)
- Voiced-voiced
- Adjacent vowels are interpreted as a complex nucleus only when a high vowel (/u/ or /i/) follows a mid or low vowel (N. Southwell and Southwell 1972, 7). This allows for the combinations listed in the table below.
- Note: /ou/ is not represented in Crúbadán.
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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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High-Mid
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e
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o
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Low-Mid
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ɐ
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Low
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a
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Diphthongs
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/ɐi/, /ɐu/, /ai/, /au/, /ei/, /eu/, /oi/, /ou/
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Alphabet
- Besides representing voiceless vowels, ⟨h⟩ is only found in loanwords and Biblical names (“Organised Phonology Data Komba Language” 1981, 4).
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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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â
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/ɐ/
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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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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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ŋ
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/ŋ/
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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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/d/
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written intervocalically
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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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z
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/z/
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Digraph
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gw
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/ɡʷ/
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kw
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/kʷ/
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Lenition Rules
- Voiced stops /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ are realized as /β/, /ɾ/, and /ɣ/ intervocalically (N. Southwell and Southwell 1972, 10; “Organised Phonology Data Komba Language” 1981, 4).
Misc. Rules
- Voiced stops may me realized as prenasalized word-initially (only in some words) (N. Southwell and Southwell 1972, 10; “Organised Phonology Data Komba Language” 1981, 4).
- /s/ and /z/ may be realized as [ts] and [dz] respectively (“Organised Phonology Data Komba Language” 1981, 4).
- Voiceless stops are aspirated word-initially (N. Southwell and Southwell 1972, 9).
References
“Organised Phonology Data Komba Language.” 1981. SIL.
Southwell, Neville, and Gwyneth Southwell. 1972. “Phonemes and Orthography of Komba.” SIL.