Last updated: 2020-06-30
SLIGHTLY COMPROMISED: glottal stops inconsistently marked
Background
Language Family: Austronesian / Malayo-Polynesian / Central-Eastern / Eastern Malayo-Polynesian / Oceanic / Wester Oceanic / Papuan Tip / Peripheral / Central Papuan / West Central Papuan / Nuclear
- Mekeo is spoken in the Central province of Papua New Guinea.
- The East Mekeo (standard) dialect is represented below (Chung 2009, 9).
Phonology
Consonants
|
|
Place of Articulation
|
|
Manner of Articulation
|
Labial
|
Alveolar
|
Velar
|
Glottal
|
|
Stops
|
p
|
t
|
k
|
ʔ
|
|
Fricatives
|
f
|
s
|
|
|
|
Nasals
|
m
|
n
|
ŋ
|
|
|
Approximants
|
|
l
|
|
|
Vowels
- Vowel length is phonemic in Mekeo (Chung 2009, 16). Long vowels are indicated by duplicate graphemes.
|
|
Front
|
Central
|
Back
|
|
High
|
i
|
|
u
|
|
Mid
|
e
|
|
o
|
|
Low
|
|
a
|
|
Alphabet
- The glottal stop is said to be written only when it poses contrast (Chung 2009, 4). Due to this, the language is somewhat compromised.
- ⟨v⟩ may be used orthographically, primarily in loanwords. I have chosen to transcribe ⟨v⟩ as /f/ given that it varies freely with [v] (ibid.).
|
Grapheme
|
Phoneme
|
|
a
|
/a/
|
|
e
|
/e/
|
|
f
|
/f/
|
|
g
|
/ŋ/
|
|
i
|
/i/
|
|
k
|
/k/
|
|
l
|
/l/
|
|
m
|
/m/
|
|
n
|
/n/
|
|
o
|
/o/
|
|
p
|
/p/
|
|
s
|
/s/
|
|
t
|
/t/
|
|
u
|
/u/
|
|
’
|
/ʔ/
|
Syllable Structure
- Syllables in Mekeo consist of the following structures (“Mekeo Organised Phonology Data” 1995, 2):
Lenition Rules
- The glottal stop is frequently omitted, especially by younger generations (Chung 2009, 4).
Misc. Rules
- /t/ is realized as [ts] preceding /i/ (Chung 2009, 3).
References
Chung, Je-Soon. 2009. “Orthography Paper for Mekeo Language in Central Province of Papua New Guinea.” SIL.
“Mekeo Organised Phonology Data.” 1995. SIL.