Mapos Buang, also known as Mapos or Central Buang, is an Oceanic language in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

Mapos
Central Buang
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMorobe Province
Native speakers
7,000 (2001)[1]
1,400 monolinguals (2001)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bzh
Glottologmapo1242

Phonology

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Mapos Buang has a larger sound inventory than is typical of most Austronesian languages.[citation needed] Notable is the existence of a phonemic contrast between a velar nasal and a uvular nasal, which is extremely rare among the world's languages. Along with this, its phonology is unusually symmetrical compared to most other languages.

Vowels

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Front Central Back
High i(ː) u(ː)
Mid e(ː) ⟨ë⟩ ə* ⟨e⟩ o(ː)
Low ɛ(ː) ⟨e⟩ a(ː) ɔ(ː) ⟨ö⟩

* [ə] is a prominent feature of Buang phonology, but is not contrastive. Thus both it and [e] are represented with ⟨e⟩.

Vowel length is shown in the orthography by doubling the letter.[2]

Consonants

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Bilabial Coronal Post-alv./
Palatal
Velar Labio-
velar
Uvular
Nasal m n ɲ ⟨ny⟩ ŋ ⟨ng⟩ ŋʷ ⟨ngw⟩ ɴ ⟨nġ⟩
(prenasalized)
Occlusive
ᵐb ⟨b⟩ ⁿd ⟨d⟩ ⁿdʒ ⟨j⟩ ᵑɡ ⟨g⟩ ᵑɡʷ ⟨gw⟩ ᶰɢ ⟨ġ⟩
p t ⟨s⟩ k ⟨kw⟩ q ⟨ḳ⟩
Continuant β ⟨v⟩ ⟨l⟩ j ⟨y⟩ ɣ ⟨gg⟩ w* ʁ ⟨h⟩
Liquid l~ɽ

*/w/ is a bilabial approximant or semivowel with no co-articulated velar component. It is placed in the labio-velar series of the chart as it fills a gap in this position. /β/ is a voiced bilabial fricative.

Orthography is the same as in the IPA when nothing is shown.

References

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  1. ^ a b Mapos at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
  2. ^ "Mapos Buang dictionary". SIL International. 2022-09-15. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
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