Mengen language
Austronesian language spoken in Papua New Guinea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mengen and Poeng are rather divergent dialects of an Austronesian language of New Britain in Papua New Guinea.
| Mengen | |
|---|---|
| Poeng | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | New Britain |
Native speakers | (8,400 cited 1982)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mee |
| Glottolog | meng1267 |
Phonology
- Both palatalization and labialization [ʲ, ʷ] is said to occur in all consonants. Palatalized consonants only occur before back vowels, and labialized consonant sounds may occur before all vowels accept /u/.
- /k/ is typically pronounced as uvular [q], but can also be heard as a velar [k] in free variation.
- Gemination or length, may also occur among consonant sounds.
- Sounds /b, ɡ/ are pronounced as voiced stops [b, ɡ], but are also heard as fricatives [β, ɣ] in intervocalic position.
- /r/ may have variation between a trill [r], a tap [ɾ], or a voiced stop [d] within vocabulary.
- Sounds /j, w/ are said to exist as a result of palatalization or labialization, but only in very few root words in word-initial position.
- Sounds /a, o/ are raised to [ʌ, o̝] within the environment of consonant length.[2]
