Aghu language

Aghu
Aghu
Central Awyu
Region	South Papua, Indonesia
Native speakers	(<14,000 cited 1987–2002)
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Greater Awyu Awyu–Dumut Awyu Aghu; ; ; ;
Dialects	Aghu; Nohon;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; ahh – Aghu; awu – Central Awyu
Glottolog	mapp1234

Aghu, or Central Awyu, is a Papuan language of South Papua, Indonesia. It may actually be two languages, depending on one's criteria for a 'language'. The two varieties are: Mappi River Awyu (Aghu) and Pasue River Awyu (Nohon, Mitak).^[2]

Phonology

The phonology of the Aghu language:^[3]

Consonants
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
Plosive	voiced	b	d~ɾ		ɡ
Fricative		f	s~ʃ		x
Approximant		w		j

Vowels
	Front		Central	Back
Close	i iː	y yː		u uː
Mid	ɛ ɛː			ɔ ɔː
Open			a aː

The front rounded vowel /y/ is unusual among local languages in Indonesia, but it can also be found in few others such as Ulumanda’. At the ends of words, vowels may appear both long and nasalized. This occurs historically where there was a final nasal /m/ or /n/. Within words, rather than nasal vowels there are sequences of vowel plus nasal consonant which matches the articulation of the following consonant. Thus nasal vowels may be analyzed as /Vn/ or /VN/.

References

^ Aghu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
Central Awyu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ "Awyu". newguineaworld. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
^ van den Heuvel, Wilco (2016). Aghu: Annotated Texts With Grammatical Introduction and Vocabulary Lists. A-PL 33. Canberra: Australian National University. hdl:1885/111412. ISBN 9781922185358.