Ajië (also known as Houailou (Wailu), Wai, and A'jie) is an Oceanic language spoken in New Caledonia. It has approximately 4,000 speakers.
| Ajië | |
|---|---|
| Region | Houailou, New Caledonia |
Native speakers | 5,400 (2009 census)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | aji |
| Glottolog | ajie1238 |
 Ajië is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nor. | lab. | nor. | lab. | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | pʷ | t | c | k | kʷ | (ʔ) | |
| prenasal | ᵐb | ᵐbʷ | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | ᵑɡʷ | |||
| Nasal | m | mʷ | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Fricative | v | vʷ | ɣ | ||||||
| Rhotic | ɾ | r | |||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||||
A glottal stop only appears after oral vowels. Different speakers may realize /v/ as a bilabial sound /β/. Glide sounds [ɹ, ɻ] are heard as allophones of /r/.[2][3]
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɯ | u | |
| High-mid | e | ə | o | |
| Low-mid | ɛ | ʌ | ɔ | |
| Low | a | |||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | iˀ | ɯˀ | uˀ | |
| High-mid | eˀ | əˀ | oˀ | |
| Low-mid | ɛˀ | ʌˀ | ɔˀ | |
| Low | aˀ | |||
In addition to this, vowel length is phonetically distinct in Ajië, bringing an additional sixteen vowels for a total of forty-eight total vowels. Only the plain oral and nasal vowels are displayed for simplicity.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | ĩ | ɯ̃ | ũ | |
| High-mid | ẽ | ə̃ | õ | |
| Low-mid | ɛ̃ | ʌ̃ | ɔ̃ | |
| Low | ã | |||
