Adzera language
| Adzera | |
|---|---|
| Region | Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea |
Native speakers | ca. 30,000 (2000 census)[1] |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:adz – Adzerazsu – Sukurumzsa – Sarasira |
| Glottolog | adze1240 Adzerasuku1264 Sukurumsara1323 Sarasira |
| ELP | Adzera |
Adzera (also spelled Atzera, Azera, Atsera, Acira) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 30,000 people in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | /i/ | /u/ |
| Low | /ɑ/ | |
The diphthongs /ɑi ɑu/ occur, while other sequences of vowels are split over two syllables.
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Plain | p | t | k | ʔ | |||
| Voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||||
| Prenasalized | ᵐp | ⁿt | ᵑk | ⁿʔ | ||||
| Affricate | Plain | tʃ | ||||||
| Voiced | dʒ | |||||||
| Prenasalized | ⁿtʃ | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
| Rhotic | r | |||||||
| Fricative | f | s | h | |||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||||
/h/ occurs in only one word: the interjection hai "yes".
The prenasalized consonants tend to lose prenasalization initially and after consonants.
/tʃ ⁿtʃ/ are sometimes realized as [ts ⁿts], especially in codas.
Writing system
| A a | B b | D d | Dz dz | F f | G g | H h | I i | K k | M m | Mp mp | N n | Nt nt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ɑ/ | /b/ | /d/ | /dʒ/ | /f/ | /ɡ/ | /h/ | /i/ | /k/ | /m/ | /ᵐp/ | /n/ | /ⁿt/ |
| Nts nts | Ŋ ŋ | Ŋk ŋk | Ŋʼ ŋʼ | P p | R r | S s | T t | Ts ts | U u | W w | Y y | ʼ |
| /ⁿtʃ/ | /ŋ/ | /ᵑk/ | /ⁿʔ/ | /p/ | /r/ | /s/ | /t/ | /tʃ/ | /u/ | /w/ | /j/ | /ʔ/ |
J, o and z are used in some loanwords and names.
References
- ^ Adzera at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Sukurum at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Sarasira at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Further reading
- Cates, Ann R. (1974). "The Atzera literacy programme: An experimental campaign in Papua New Guinea". Papua New Guinea Journal of Education. 10: 34–38.
- Holzknecht, K. G. (1973). "The phonemes of the Adzera language". Pacific Linguistics A. 38: 1–11.
- Holzknecht, K. G. (1973). "Morphophonemics of the Adzera language". Pacific Linguistics A. 38: 13–19.
- Holzknecht, K. G. (1973). "A synopsis of the verb forms in Adzera". Pacific Linguistics A. 38: 21–28.
- Holzknecht, K. G. (1978). Adzera–English dictionary.
- Holzknecht, S. (1986). "A morphology and grammar of Adzera (Amari dialect), Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea". Pacific Linguistics A. 70: 77–166.
- Howard, David Edward (2002). Continuity and given-new status of discourse referents in Adzera oral narrative. M.A. thesis. University of Texas at Arlington.
- Roke, Ann; Price, Dorothy (1970). A summary of the Atzera literacy programme. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
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