Ekari language
Trans–New Guinea language of Indonesia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ekari (also Ekagi, Kapauku, Mee) is a Trans–New Guinea language spoken by about 100,000 people in the Paniai lakes region of the Indonesian province of Central Papua, including the villages of Enarotali, Mapia and Moanemani. This makes it the second-most populous Papuan language in Indonesian New Guinea after Western Dani. Language use is vigorous. Documentation is quite limited.
Phonology
Consonants
The voiced velar affricate /ɡʟ̝/ is pronounced with lateral release before front vowels. Doble describes both /k/ and /ɡʟ̝/ as being labialized [kʷ, ɡʟ̝ʷ] after the back vowels /o, u/ (i.e., okei 'they', euga 'more'), with /ɡʟ̝/ having 'varying' degrees of the lateral.[2] Staroverov & Tebay describe /ɡʟ̝/ as being velar lateral [ɡʟ̝] before front vowels and uvular non-lateral [ɢʁ] before non-front vowels.[3]
/j/ is a "more palatalized [ʒ]" (perhaps [ʝ] or [ʑ]) before the high front vowel /i/ (e.g., yina 'insect').[2]
Vowels
Staroverov & Tebay (2019) describe five vowel qualities plus length and diphthongs. Doble (1987) analyses the long vowels and diphthongs as sequences.
Tone
Ekari has pitch accent. One syllable in a word may have a high tone, contrasting with words without a high tone. If the vowel is long or a diphthong and not at the end of the word, the high tone is phonetically rising.
CV words have no tone contrast. CVV words may be mid/low or high. (In all of these patterns, here and following, initial C is optional.)
Words of the following shapes may have a contrastive high tone on the final syllable: CVCV, CVCVV. Words of the following shapes may have either a rising or a falling tone on the first long syllable: CVVCV, CVVCVV, CVCVVCVV, CVVCVCV (rare), CVVCVCVV (rare). The following word shapes do not have contrastive tone: CVCVCV, CVCVVCV, CVCVCVV, and words of 4 or more syllables.
