Last Updated: 2020-06-30
SLIGHTLY COMPROMISED: conflation between /n/ and /ŋ/
Background
Language Family: Trans-New Guinea / Madang-Adelbert Range / Adelbert Range / Pihom-Isumrud-Mugil / Mugil
Phonology
Consonants
- /ŋ/ is marginal (M. Hepner and Hepner 1989, 18).
- /p/ and /f/ are also rare (not to the extent of /ŋ/) (M. Hepner and Hepner 1989, 25).
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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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ʔ
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Fricatives
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f
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s z
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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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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.
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Vowels
- Glides /w/ and /j/ preceding or following vowels are always interpreted as consonants and never part of complex nuclei with adjacent vowels (“Bargam Organised Phonology Data” 1992, 3).
- Consecutive vowels constitute separate syllables (M. Hepner and Hepner 1989, 24).
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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
- The orthographic contrast between /n/ and /ŋ/ is somewhat convoluted. (“Bargam Organised Phonology Data” 1992) represents /ŋ/ with ⟨ng⟩ (p. 1). M. Hepner and Hepner (1989), however, state that /n/ preceding velar consonants is phonetically realized as [ŋ]. While M. Hepner and Hepner (1989) identify /ŋ/ as a distinctive phoneme, it appears that the sequence ⟨ng⟩ may, depending on the instance, represent both the underlying form and surface realization of /ŋ/, compromising the language. Given that /ŋ/ is rare underlyingly in this language, I have chosen to transcribe ⟨ng⟩ sequences as /nɡ/. This means that /ŋ/ is not represented in the Crúbadán corpus.
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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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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/
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p
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/p/
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q
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/ʔ/
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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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z
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/z/
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Syllable Structure
- Syllables in Bargam follow the order of (C)(C)V(C)(C) (M. Hepner and Hepner 1989, 31).
Lenition Rules
- When a geminate is created by adding a consonantal suffix, the cluster always degeminates to a single consonant (M. Hepner and Hepner 1989, 41).
Misc. Rules
- /ɾ/ may vary freely with /r/ word-initially and word-medially (M. Hepner and Hepner 1989, 19).
- Phonetic glottal stops occur preceding word-initial vowels (M. Hepner and Hepner 1989, 8).
- Consonant clusters generally are realized with an intervening epenthetic vowel (M. Hepner and Hepner 1989, 15).
References
“Bargam Organised Phonology Data.” 1992. SIL.
Hepner, Mark, and Carol Hepner. 1989. “Bargam Phonology Essentials.”