| Iaai | |
| Nativename: | Hwen iaai |
| Region: | Ouvéa Island, New Caledonia |
| Date: | 2009 census |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam3: | Oceanic |
| Fam4: | Southern Oceanic |
| Fam5: | New Caledonian – Loyalties |
| Fam6: | Loyalty Islands |
| Iso3: | iai |
| Glotto: | iaai1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Iaai |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | Lang Status 99-NE.svg |
Iaai (Iaai pronunciation: pronounced as /jaːi/ in English as) is a language of Ouvéa Island (New Caledonia). It shares the island of Ouvéa with Fagauvea, a Polynesian outlier language.
Iaai is the sixth-most-spoken language of New Caledonia, with 4078 speakers as of 2009.[1] It is taught in schools in an effort to preserve it.
The language has been studied by linguists Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre and Anne-Laure Dotte.
Iaai is remarkable for its large inventory of unusual phonemes, in particular its consonants, with a rich variety of voiceless nasals and approximants.[2]
Iaai has ten vowel qualities, all of which may occur long and short. There is little difference in quality depending on length.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |||
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Close mid | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Open mid | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
Iaai constitutes one of the few cases of front rounded vowels attested outside of their geographic stronghold in Eurasia,[3] even if other cases have since been reported in the Oceanic family.[4]
The vowel pronounced as //ø øː// is only known to occur in six words. In all of these but pronounced as //ɲ̊øːk// "dedicate", it appears between a labial (b, m) and velar (k, ŋ) consonant.
After the non-labiovelarized labial consonants and the vowel pronounced as //y yː//, the vowel pronounced as //ɔ ɔː// is pronounced pronounced as /[œ œː]/.
The open vowels only contrast in a few environments. pronounced as //æ æː// only occurs after the plain labial consonants and the vowel pronounced as //y yː//, the same environment that produces pronounced as /[œ œː]/. pronounced as //a aː// does not occur after pronounced as //ɥ ɥ̊ y yː//, but does occur elsewhere, so that there is a contrast between pronounced as //æ æː// and pronounced as //a aː// after pronounced as //b p m m̥ f//.
The vowels pronounced as //i e ø a o u// are written with their IPA letters. pronounced as //y// is written û, pronounced as //æ// is written ë, pronounced as //ɔ// is written â, and pronounced as //ɤ// is written ö. Long vowels, which are twice as long as short vowels, are written double.
Iaai has an unusual voicing distinction in its sonorants, as well as several coronal series. Unlike most languages of New Caledonia, voiced stops are not prenasalized.[5]
| Labial | Denti- alveolar | Alveolar | Retroflex | Pre-palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| (pronounced as /ink/) (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| Flap | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||||
Unlike many languages with denti-alveolar stops, Iaai pronounced as //t̪, d̪// are released abruptly, and pronounced as //t̪// has a very short voice onset time. However, the apical post-alveolar and laminal palatal stops pronounced as //ʈ, ɖ, c, ɟ// have substantially fricated releases pronounced as /[ʈᶳ, ɖᶼ, cᶜ̧, ɟᶨ]/, and may be better described as sounds between proper stops and affricates.
The labial approximants are placed in their respective columns following their phonological behaviour (their effects on following vowels), but there is evidence that all members of these series are either labial-palatal or labial-velar. pronounced as //ɥ̊, ɥ// are sometimes pronounced as weak fricatives pronounced as /[ɸʲ, βʲ]/.
In many cases, words with voiced and voiceless approximants are morphologically related, such as pronounced as //liʈ// "night" and pronounced as //l̥iʈ// "black". pronounced as //h//- and vowel-initial words have a similar relationship. The voiceless sonorant often marks object incorporation. However, many roots with voiceless sonorants have no voiced cognate.
The labialized labials are more precisely labio-velarized labials. There is evidence that non-labialized labial consonants such as pronounced as //m// are palatalized pronounced as //pʲ//, pronounced as //mʲ//, etc., but this is obscured before front vowels. If this turns out to be the situation, it would parallel Micronesian languages which have no plain labials.