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Nyelâyu
Nyelâyu
Pronunciation	[jãlɑjʊ]
Native to	New Caledonia
Native speakers	2,000 (2009 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic New Caledonian – Loyalties New Caledonian Northern New Caledonian Extreme Northern Nyelâyu; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Tiari-Balade; Belep; Arama;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	yly
Glottolog	nyal1254 Nyalayu/Belep; bala1316 Balade
ELP	Belep
	Nyâlayu is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Nyelâyu (Yâlayu), also known as Nyalâyu, is a Kanak language of northern New Caledonia, spoken by approximately 2,000 speakers. There are two dialects that are not mutually intelligible. Pooc (or Haat) is spoken in the Belep islands, which are located just north of Grande Terre. Puma (or Paak or Ovac) is spoken in the northernmost regions of New Caledonia in the areas around Poum in the west and Pouébo and Balade in the east.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labiovelar	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	plain	pʷ	p	t	c	k
	aspirated	pʰʷ	pʰ	tʰ	cʰ	kʰ
	prenasalized	ᵐbʷ	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮɟ	ᵑg
Nasals	plain	mʷ	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Nasals	aspirated	mʰʷ	mʰ	nʰ	ɲʰ
Fricatives			β			ɣ (x)	h
Semivowels	plain		w		j
Semivowels	aspirated		wʰ		jʰ
Trill				r
Laterals				l lʰ l᷉

Voiceless stops, nasals, and approximants exhibit a contrast of aspiration exhibited in the following examples.

pe [pe] "ray fish" || phe [pʰe] "sharpening stone"
teec [teec] "scorching" || theec [tʰeec] "washed up"
nu [nu] "coconut palm" || nhu [nʰu] "hot"

Aspirated consonants are very subtly marked. Aspiration seems to be a prosodic trait that affects the overall realization of the syllable by lowering the register of the voice.^[2]

Vowels

Oral Vowels
	Front	Back
High	i (y) iː	u uː
Mid	e (ø) eː	o oː
Open	a aː

Nasal Vowels
	Front	Back
High	ĩ ĩː	ũ ũː
Mid	ẽ ẽː	õ õː
Open	ã ãː

The vowels /y/ and /ø/ are in parentheses, because they are very rare and appear only in a few words.^[2]

Notes

^ Nyelâyu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b Ozanne-Rivierre (1998).

References

Ozanne-Rivierre, Françoise (1998). Le Nyelâyu de Balade (Nouvelle-Calédonie). Paris: Peeters Press.
McCracken, Chelsea (2013). A grammar of Belep (Doctor of Philosophy thesis). Rice University. hdl:1911/71287.