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Kuman language (New Guinea)

Kuman (also Chimbu or Simbu) is a language of Chimbu Province, Papua New Guinea. In 1994, it was estimated that 80,000 people spoke Kuman, 10,000 of them monolinguals; in the 2000 census, 115,000 were reported, with few monolinguals. Ethnologue also reported 70,000 second language speakers in 2021.

Phonology

Consonants

  • Voiced plosives are usually prenasal, but may fluctuate in word-initial position as ordinary voiced stops .
  • Voiceless stops are always aspirated in word-initial position.
  • only occurs word-medially and word-finally. In word-final position it is heard as a trill .
  • can be pronounced as , in word-initial position.
  • can be pronounced as before front vowels .
  • Like other Chimbu languages, Kuman has rather unusual lateral consonants. is heard as voiceless velar lateral when preceding a consonant. It is also heard as a voiceless alveolar fricative before an /s/. It may also be realized as a "laterally released velar affricate" (presumably , found in other Papuan languages) which is voiced word medially and voiceless word finally (not occurring word initially).

Vowels

  • /a/ can be heard as either central or back in free variation.
  • /e/ is pronounced as as a first vowel in a word.
  • /o/ is pronounced in its lax form as before /ɾ/.

Syllable patterns

Syllable structure is (C)V(C). Any consonant can occur in onset position, but in coda position only /m/, /n/, /gɬ/, /l/ and /k/ can occur.

Grammar

Kuman is an SOV language.

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Salisbury (1956) and Trefry (1969), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

References

Further reading

  • Hardie, Peter. 2003. Is Kuman Tonal? An account of basic segmental and tonological structure in the Papuan language Kuman. MA thesis: Australian National University

External links