Mouk-Aria language

Mouk-Aria is an Austronesian language spoken by about 600 individuals along coastal West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea on the island of New Britain.

Mouk-Aria
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	coastal West New Britain Province
Native speakers	(630 cited 1982)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic North New Guinea Ngero–Vitiaz Southwest New Britain Bibling Mouk-Aria
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mwh
Glottolog	mouk1239

Phonology

Consonants^[2]

	Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal
Plosive	p b	t d	k g
Fricative		s	χ
Nasal	m	n	ŋ
Approximant		l

• The nasal consonants /m n ŋ/ can appear as the syllabic nasals [m̩ n̩ ŋ̩] word-initially.
• The nasal consonants /m n ŋ/ sometimes appear as prenasalised voiced stops [mb nd ŋg] before /χ/.
• The voiced stops /b d g/ frequently manifest as fricatives [β ɹ ɣ] after vowels.
• /χ/ is voiced [ʁ] between voiced segments.
• Sonorants /l m n ŋ/ are voiceless [l̥ m̥ n̥ ŋ̊] in clusters after voiceless stops.

Vowels^[2]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

• /i e/ manifest as [ɯ ɤ] before /χ/.

References

1. Mouk-Aria at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Thurston, William R. (1996). Ross, Malcolm D. (ed.). "The Bibling Languages of Northwestern New Britain". Studies in the Languages of New Britain and New Ireland 1: Austronesian Languages of the North New Guinea Cluster in Northwestern New Britain. Pacific Linguistics: Series C. 135. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University: 249–392.

External links

• EE-TAOW! The Mouk Story (Part 1) - New Tribes Mission 1999, featuring several Mouk speakers.