Last Updated: 2020-04-17
SLIGHTLY COMPROMISED: conflation between /l/ and /r/
Background
Language Family: Trans-New Guinea / Main Section / Central and Western / Huon-Finisterre / Finisterre / Gusap-Mot
- Rawa is spoken in the Madang province of Papua New Guinea.
- Rawa has two dialects: Rawa and Karo. The main differences are (N. R. Toland and Toland 1991, 2):
- The Karo dialect has voiced stops, whereas the Rawa dialect has aspirated voiceless stops.
- /l/ is much more frequent than /r/ in the Karo dialect, and /r/ is much more frequent than /l/ in the Rawa dialect.
- I have opted to follow the analysis that includes voiced stops, meaning the Karo dialect is reflected more closely below.
Phonology
Consonants
- /h/ is considered a marginal phoneme (D. Toland 1992, 3).
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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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Palatal
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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops (plain)
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p b
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t d
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k ɡ
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Stops (prenasalized)
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ᵐb
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ⁿd
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ᵑɡ
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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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ŋ
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Trills
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r
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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
- Vowels do not occur in succession (N. R. Toland and Toland 1991, 2).
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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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ɔ
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Low
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a
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Alphabet
- Depending on the dialect, /r/ can be written with either ⟨l⟩ or ⟨r⟩ (D. Toland 1992, 3). ⟨r⟩ is said to be used to transcribe /r/ in the Rawa dialect, whereas ⟨l⟩ is said to be used to transcribe /r/ in the Karo dialect. This is somewhat suspect, as the corresponding Crúbadán corpus of the Karo dialect contains instances of both ⟨r⟩ and ⟨l⟩ (only ⟨l⟩ is expected). Given this, I think there is high likelihood of both ⟨r⟩ and ⟨l⟩ being used to represent /r/ in the other Crúbadán corpora for the language as well (the general corpus and the Rawa dialect corpus). This means that conflation between /r/ and /l/ cannot be avoided, resulting in a somewhat compromised language.
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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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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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k
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/k/
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l
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/l/; /r/
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/l/: default in rule set
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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; l
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/r/
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⟨r⟩: default in rule set
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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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Multigraph
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mb
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/ᵐb/
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nd
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/ⁿd/
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ng
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/ŋ/
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ngg
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/ᵑɡ/
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oo
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/ɔ/
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Syllable Structure
- Syllables in Rawa generally have a CV structure (N. R. Toland and Toland 1991, 2).
- Syllables consisting of only a vowel can occur word-initially.
Lenition Rules
- /h/ may be elided word-initially (D. Toland 1992, 3).
Misc. Rules
- /r/ may be realized as [l] (D. Toland 1992, 3).
References
Toland, Donald. 1992. “Rawa Organised Phonology Data.” SIL.
Toland, Norma R., and Donald F. Toland. 1991. Reference Grammar of the Karo/Rawa Language. Edited by John M. Clifton. SIL.