Parawen language

Parawen
Para
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMadang Province
Ethnicity760 (2000 census)[1]
Native speakers
(430 cited 1981)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3prw
Glottologpara1307

Parawen is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

Parawen has a small phonemic inventory of nine consonants and three vowels.[2]

Parawen consonant inventory
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Stop voiceless /t/ /k/
voiced /b/ /d/ /g/
Nasal /m/ /n/
Glide /w/ /j/

An epenthetic vowel, generally /ɑ/ but /u/ if the preceding vowel is also /u/, which is usually inserted following a word-final consonant. /b/ is devoiced to [p] word-finally, even when an epenthetic vowel follows. /t/ is realised as [s] adjacent to /i/, and /d/ is [r] post-vocalically.

Parawen vowels
Front Back
High /i/ /u/
Low /ɑ/

References

  1. ^ a b Parawen at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Pick, Andrew (2020). A reconstruction of Proto-Northern Adelbert phonology and lexicon (PDF) (PhD dissertation). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. p. 158.


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