Suau, also known as Iou, is an Oceanic language spoken in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by 6,800 people and a further 14,000 as a lingua franca.
Phonology
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | g | ||
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Fricative | (f) | s | h | ||
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Glide | w | j | |||
- Some village dialects also include a fricative sound [f].[2]
- /l/ can also be heard as a flap [ɾ] in free variation.
- /w/ may also rarely be pronounced as [v, β] among speakers.[3]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
External links
- Ekalesia Bukana (1895), Anglican Morning Prayer in Suau, digitized by Richard Mammana
- Paradisec has a number of collections of Suau materials, including two collections of Arthur Cappell's (AC1, AC2).
References
