Nengone is a language of the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia.
| Nengone | |
|---|---|
| Region | Maré Island, New Caledonia |
Native speakers | 8,700 (2009 census)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nen |
| Glottolog | neng1238 |
 Nengone is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Phonology
The phonological inventory of consonants is atypically large for an Oceanic language. Many sounds which are allophones in other sub-families are distinct phonemes in the Nengone language:[2]
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | ʈ | k | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɖ | ɡ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡ʃ | ||||||
| voiced | d͡ʒ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | (f) | θ | s | ʃ | (x) | h | |
| voiced | z | ɣ | ||||||
| Nasal | voiceless | m̥ | n̥ | ŋ̊ | ||||
| voiced | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Rhotic | r | |||||||
| Approximant | voiceless | w̥ | ||||||
| voiced | w | ɭ | j | |||||
Phonemes in parentheses only occur in words borrowed from other languages.[2]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| ɛ | ɔ | |
| Low | a | |
Bibliography
- Tryon, D.T. and Dubois, M.J. Nengone dictionary. Part I: Nengone-English. C-9, viii + 452 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1969. doi:10.15144/PL-C9
- Tryon, D.T. and Dubois, M.J. Nengone dictionary. Part II: English-Nengone. C-23, iv + 205 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1971. doi:10.15144/PL-C23
