Nengone language

Nengone
Native to	New Caledonia
Region	Maré Island
Native speakers	8,700 (2009 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic New Caledonian – Loyalties Loyalty Islands Nengone
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nen
Glottolog	neng1238

Nengone is a language of the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia.

Phonology

The phonological inventory of consonants is untypically large for an Oceanic language. Many sounds which are allophones in other sub-families are distinct sounds in the Nengone language:

Consonant sounds

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p		t	ʈ		k	ʔ
	voiced	b		d	ɖ		ɡ
Affricate	voiceless					t͡ʃ
	voiced					d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	(f)	θ	s		ʃ	(x)	h
	voiced			z			ɣ
Nasal	voiceless	m̥		n̥			ŋ̊
	voiced	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Rhotic				r
Approximant	voiceless	w̥
	voiced	w			ɭ	j

Phonemes in parentheses only occur in words borrowed from other languages.

Vowel sounds

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a