Ajië language explained

Ajië
Speakers:	5,400
Date:	2009 census
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam3:	Oceanic
Fam4:	Southern Oceanic
Fam5:	New Caledonian – Loyalties
Fam6:	New Caledonian
Fam7:	Southern
Fam8:	South Southern
Fam9:	Wailic
Iso3:	aji
Glotto:	ajie1238
Glottorefname:	Ajie
Map:	Lang Status 99-NE.svg

Ajië (also known as Houailou (Wailu), Wai, and A'jie) is an Oceanic language spoken in New Caledonia. It has approximately 4,000 speakers.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		nor.	lab.				nor.	lab.
Stop	voiceless	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	(pronounced as /link/)
	prenasal	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Nasal		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Fricative		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/				pronounced as /link/
Rhotic				pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Approximant				pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/

A glottal stop only appears after oral vowels. Different speakers may realize /v/ as a bilabial sound /β/. Glide sounds [ɹ, ɻ] are heard as allophones of /r/.^{[1] [2]}

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
High-mid	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Low-mid	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Low		pronounced as /link/

Back

High	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
High-mid	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Low-mid	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Low		pronounced as /link/

In addition to this, vowel length is phonetically distinct in Ajië, bringing an additional sixteen vowels for a total of forty-eight total vowels. Only the plain oral and nasal vowels are displayed for simplicity.

Back

High	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
High-mid	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Low-mid	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Low		pronounced as /link/

Notes and References

1. Book: Tryon . Darrell T. . A'jië . Aramiou . Sylvain . Euritein . Jean . . 1995 . In Darrell T. Tryon (ed.), Comparative Austronesian dictionary: an introduction to Austronesian studies, part 1: fascicle 1 . 859–865.
2. Book: de La Fontinelle, Jacqueline. La langue de Houailou, Nouvelle-Calédonie: description phonologique et description syntaxique. Peeters Publishers. 1976.