Nemi language

The Nemi language is a Kanak language of the Austronesian language family spoken by 320 people in the north of New Caledonia, in the commune of Hienghène. Dialects include Ouanga, Ouélis, and Kavatch.^[2]

Sample audio of spoken Nemi (intro and last part are French)

Nemi
Native to	Hienghène, New Caledonia
Native speakers	910 (2009 census)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic New Caledonian – Loyalties New Caledonian Northern New Caledonian North Northern Nemi languages Nemi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nem
Glottolog	nemi1240
ELP	Nemi
Nemi is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Phonology

The phonology of Nemi is as follows:^[3]

Consonants

		Labiovelar	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasals	voiced	mʷˠ	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
	voiceless	m̥ʷˠ	m̥	n̥	ɲ̥	ŋ̥
Stops	tenuis	pʷˠ	p	t	c	k
	aspirated	pʷˠʰ	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ
	prenasalized	ᵐpʷˠ	ᵐp	ⁿt	ᶮc	ᵑk
	postnasalized	pʷˠᵐ	pᵐ	tⁿ	cᶮ	kᵑ
Continuants	voiced oral	w	v	(l)	j
	voiceless oral	w̥	f		j̥		h
	voiced nasal	w̃
	voiceless nasal	w̥̃					h̃

Note that the 'labiovelar' consonants are labialized and velarized bilabial consonants (with the exception of /w/ and its voiceless, nasal, and voiceless nasal counterparts, which are labial-velar approximants.).

Vowels

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long
High	i	iː	u	uː
Mid	e	eː	o	oː
Low	a	aː

The vowel /a/ actually represents the low central unrounded vowel, [ä], and not the low front unrounded vowel, [a].

References

1. Nemi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Isabelle Bril, Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre, Complex Predicates in Oceanic Languages: Studies in the Dynamics of Binding and Boundness (2012), p. 389.
3. Rivierre, Françoise. 1975. Phonologie du némi (Nouvelle-Calédonie) et notes sur les consonnes postnasalisées. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 70. 345-356.

Bibliography

• Haudricourt, André-Georges; Ozanne-Rivierre, Françoise (1982). Dictionnaire thématique des langues de la région de Hienghène (Nouvelle-Calédonie) : pije, fwâi, nemi, jawe. Précédé d'une phonologie comparée des langues de Hienghène et du proto-océanien. Paris: Société d'Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France. p. 285. ISBN 978-2852971349.

External links

• Information about the Nemi language