Yagwoia language explained

Yagwoia
States:	Papua New Guinea
Region:	Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Gulf provinces
Speakers:	10,000
Date:	2005
Ref:	e25
Familycolor:	Papuan
Fam1:	Trans–New Guinea
Fam2:	Angan
Iso3:	ygw
Glotto:	yagw1240
Glottorefname:	Yagwoia

Yagwoia (Yeghuye), or Kokwaiyakwa, is an Angan language of Papua New Guinea. Dialects are named after the five ethnicities, Iwalaqamalje, Hiqwaye, Hiqwase, Gwase, Heqwangilye (Yeqwangilje dialect).

Distribution

Yagwoia is spoken in:

• Eastern Highlands Province

Iqwalaqamalje

• Gulf Province

Gwase

• Morobe Province

Hiqwase, Hiqwaye, and Yeqwangilje

Phonology

Consonants^[1] !!Labial!Alveolar!Velar!Uvular!Glottal

Plosive	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Fricative		pronounced as /link/			pronounced as /link/
Nasal	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Approximant	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/

• /p t k/ tend to become voiced [b d g] in clusters with nasals or /l/.
• /m n ŋ l/ can be syllabic.
• /s/ is in free variation with [z]. Older speakers tend to pronounce it as [ts~dz].
• /t/ can often be heard as [r].

Vowels!!Front!Central!Back

High	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Mid	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Low		pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/

• /ɨ/ is rare.

Additionally, the following diphthongs have been observed: /ei/, /ai/, /ae/, /au/, /ou/.

Yagwoia is tonal, distinguishing high and low tone. However, tone has a low functional load, and so remains unwritten.^[1]

External links

• Paradisec have an open access collection of Yagwoia recordings. They also have a collection of Jadran Mimica recordings that contain some Yagwoia.

Notes and References

1. Trainum, Mike (1992). Tanggu Organised Phonology Data. SIL International.