Manam language - Wikipedia

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2024-10-14 13:30:04

Some vowels become glides in diphthongs, e.g. /u/ , /o/ > [w] and /i/ , /e/ > [j] . /i/ and /u/ are 'weaker' than /e/ and /o/ , so that the syllable /kuo/ becomes [kwo] and not *[kuw]

There are some phonotactic restrictions on the prevalent syllable structure. E.g. V1 cannot be [a] , whereas V must be [a] as long as it is not the syllable's sole vowel. C can be any consonant, whereas C1 must be a nasal consonant.

Stress is phonemic: /ˈsara/ 'palm tree', /saˈra/ 'seagull'. The stress falls on one of the three last syllables of a word, and stressing the penult syllable is the most common: /ˈnatu/ 'child', /maˈlipi/ 'work'. If the last syllable ends in a nasal consonant, it will be stressed instead: /naˈtum/ 'your child'. Some inflections and affixes do not alter the stress of the root word: /iˈto/ 'he learned' (i- is a 3rd person prefix), /siˈŋabalo/ 'in the bush' (-lo is a locative suffix).

In the orthography, stressed vowels can be underlined in order to avoid ambiguities. Ie. /ˈsara/ ⟨sara⟩ 'palm tree', /saˈra/ ⟨sara⟩ 'seagull'.