Mandara, also known as Tabar, is an Austronesian language spoken on the Tabar Group of islands, New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea. Three dialects have been identified, Simberi, Tatau and Tabar, corresponding to the three main islands in the group.[1][2] Recently,[when?] a written form of Mandara has been made by a Korean missionary. So far, about 3,000 people are literate in this form of Mandara, and a Bible has been published in it as well.
Phonology
The Simberi-Northern Tatau dialect has 14 phonemic consonants and 7 phonemic vowels. The language has four syllable patterns: V, CV, VC and CVC.[3]: 8
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Velar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | |||
| Plosive | Voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ | ||
| Voiced pre-nasalized | /ᵐb/ | /ⁿd/ | /ᵑɡ/ | |||
| Affricate | /t͡s/ | |||||
| Fricative | /β/ | /s/ | ||||
| Flap | /ɾ/ | |||||
| Lateral | /l/ | |||||
- /p/, /t/ and /k/ are non-aspirated.[3]: 9
Stress
The final syllable of a word receives stress. There is no evidence of phonemic stress.[3]: 9
References
- ^ a b Mandara at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Brown, Keith, ed. (2006). Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (PDF). Elsevier. p. i. ISBN 978-0-08-044854-1.
- ^ a b c Hong, Steven; Hong, Holly (2003). "Grammar Essentials of the Mandara Language of New Ireland Province". www.language-archives.org. Retrieved 2025-02-28.