Gimi language
Papuan language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gimi, also known as Labogai, is a Papuan language spoken in the Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea. 23,000 speakers (2000 cited) speak the Gimi language.
| Gimi | |
|---|---|
| Labogai | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Eastern Highlands Province |
Native speakers | (23,000 cited 2000)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gim |
| Glottolog | gimi1243 |
Phonology
Gimi has 5 vowels and 12 consonants.[2] It has voiceless and voiced glottal consonants where related languages have /k/ and /ɡ/. The voiceless glottal is simply a glottal stop [ʔ]. The voiced consonant behaves phonologically like a glottal stop, but does not have full closure. Phonetically it is a creaky-voiced glottal approximant [˷].[3]
Vowels
Consonants
Allophony
/p/ occurs word initially only in loanwords.
/b/ can surface as either [b] or [β] in free variation.
/z/ becomes [s] before /ɑ/.
/t/ and /ɾ/ tend to fluctuate with one another word initially.
Syllables
The syllable structure is (C)V(G), where G is either /ʔ/ or /˷/.
Tone
The final vowel of a word takes either a level or falling tone. The falling tone is written with an acute accent.
| ak "seed" | ák "armband" | ||
| nimi "bird" | nimí "louse" |
Orthography
Gimi uses the Latin script.[2]
| Letter | Aa | Bb | Dd | Ee | Gg | Hh | Ii | Kk | Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Zz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | ɑ | b | d | e | ˷ (ʔ) |
h | i | ʔ (ʔː) |
m | n | o | p | ɾ | s | t | u | z |
