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The Mussau-Emira language is spoken on the islands of Mussau and Emirau in the St Matthias Islands in the Bismarck Archipelago.
| Mussau-Emira | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Islands of Mussau and Emirau (New Ireland Province) |
Native speakers | 5,000 (2003)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | emi |
| Glottolog | muss1246 |
| ELP | Mussau-Emira |
 Mussau is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Phonemes
Consonants
Mussau-Emira distinguishes the following consonants.
- Fricative sounds /β, ɣ/ may also be heard as voiced stop sounds [b, ɡ] in word-initial position and when geminated.
Vowels
Stress
In most words the primary stress falls on the penultimate vowel and secondary stresses fall on every second syllable preceding that. This is true of suffixed forms as well, as in níma 'hand', nimá-gi 'my hand'; níu 'coconut', niúna 'its coconut'.
Pronouns and person markers
Free pronouns
| Person | Singular | Plural | Dual | Trial | Paucal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person inclusive | ita | italua | itatolu | itaata | |
| 1st person exclusive | agi | ami | aŋalua | aŋatolu | aŋaata |
| 2nd person | io | am | amalua | amatolu | amaata |
| 3rd person | ia | ila | ilalua | ilotolu | ilaata |
Subject prefixes
Prefixes mark the subjects of each verb:
- (agi) a-namanama 'I'm eating'
- (io) u-namanama 'you're (sing.) eating'
- (ia) e-namanama 'he's/she's eating'
Numbers
- kateva
- galua
- kotolu
- gaata
- galima
- gaonomo
- gaitu
- gaoalu
- kasio
- kasaŋaulu
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