Last Updated: 2020-07-01
Background
Language Family: Austronesian / Malayo-Polynesian / Central-Eastern / Eastern Malayo-Polynesian / Oceanic / Western Oceanic / North New Guinea / Schouten / Kairiru-Manam / Manam
- Manam is spoken in the Madang province of Papua New Guinea.
Phonology
Consonants
- Manam is currently undergoing sound change from /k/ to /ʔ/, with glottal stops being used more freely by younger generations (Turner 1995, 675). Although some sources (e.g. Gregersen 1976, 102) indicate /k/ as the underlying form, I have opted to follow the analysis of newer sources (e.g. Turner 1995, 674) and represent /ʔ/ as underlying.
- Lichtenberk (1983) argues the change is from /q/ to /ʔ/ (p. 12).
- Gregersen (1976) expresses the lack of clarity around the phonemic status of glides /j/ and /w/. I have chosen to treat them as allophones of /i/ and /o/, just as Lichtenberk (1983) does, given their predictable manifestations (see Misc. Rules; pp. 14-15).
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Bilabial
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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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ɡ
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ʔ
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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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Trills
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r
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Approximants
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l
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Vowels
- Adjacent vowels are interpreted as separate from one another (Lichtenberk 1983, 18:21).
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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
- 0.4% of the Crúbadán corpus contains apostrophes, which aren’t typical of the Manam orthography. Upon speculation, these occurrences seem to appear only in biblical texts, most likely representing the glottal stop, just as in other Austronesian languages. I have chosen not to account for them in the rule set.
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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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i
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/i/
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k
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/ʔ/
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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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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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z
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/z/
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Digraph
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ng
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/ŋ/
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Syllable Structure
- Syllables in Manam follow the order of (C)V(N) (Lichtenberk 1983, 18:21).
- There are instances, due to affixation, where syllabic nasals occur (Gregersen 1976, 103; Martens 1985, 125–26).
Lenition Rule
- /ɡ/ spirantizes intervocalically (Gregersen 1976, 103).
- /q/ (and I’m assuming /k/), if used by older generations, may be spirantized intervocalically (Lichtenberk 1983, 18:13).
Misc. Rules
- The contrast between /m/ and /n/ and between /n/ and /ŋ/ neutralizes word-finally (Turner 1995, 675).
- /s/ and (more commonly) /z/ may be realized as affricates (Lichtenberk 1983, 18:13).
- With no morpheme boundaries intervening, /i/ is realized as [j] intervocalically, and word-initially preceding /a/ or /u/ (Lichtenberk 1983, 18:14).
- With no morpheme boundaries intervening, /o/ is realized as [w] intervocalically, word-initially preceding /a/, and following non-initial bilabial consonants while also preceding morpheme final /a/ (Lichtenberk 1983, 18:15).
References
Gregersen, Edgar A. 1976. “A Note on the Manam Language of Papua New Guinea.” Anthropological Linguistics 18 (3): 95–111.
Lichtenberk, Frantisek. 1983. A Grammar of Manam. Vol. 18. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Martens, Michael P. 1985. Review of: A Grammar of Manam, by Frantisek Lichtenberk. Notes on Linguistics 32: 27-28.
Turner, Blaine P. 1995. “Comparative Austronesian Dictionary.” In, edited by Darrell T. Tyron. Mouton de Gruyter.