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Ajië language

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Ajië
RegionHouailou, New Caledonia
Native speakers
5,400 (2009 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3aji
Glottologajie1238
Ajië is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Ajië (also known as Houailou (Wailu), Wai, and A'jie) is an Oceanic language spoken in New Caledonia. It has approximately 4,000 speakers.

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
nor. lab. nor. lab.
Stop voiceless p t c k (ʔ)
prenasal ᵐb ᵐbʷ ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑɡ ᵑɡʷ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Fricative v ɣ
Rhotic ɾ r
Approximant l j w

A glottal stop only appears after oral vowels. Different speakers may realize /v/ as a bilabial sound /β/. Glide sounds [ɹ, ɻ] are heard as allophones of /r/.[2][3]

Vowels

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Front Central Back
High i ɯ u
High-mid e ə o
Low-mid ɛ ʌ ɔ
Low a
Glottalized vowels
Front Central Back
High ɯˀ
High-mid əˀ
Low-mid ɛˀ ʌˀ ɔˀ
Low

In addition to this, vowel length is phonetically distinct in Ajië, bringing an additional sixteen vowels for a total of forty-eight total vowels. Only the plain oral and nasal vowels are displayed for simplicity.

Nasal vowels
Front Central Back
High ĩ ɯ̃ ũ
High-mid ə̃ õ
Low-mid ɛ̃ ʌ̃ ɔ̃
Low ã

References

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  1. ^ Ajië at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Tryon, Darrell T.; Aramiou, Sylvain; Euritein, Jean (1995). A'jië. In Darrell T. Tryon (ed.), Comparative Austronesian dictionary: an introduction to Austronesian studies, part 1: fascicle 1: Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 859–865.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  3. ^ de La Fontinelle, Jacqueline (1976). La langue de Houailou, Nouvelle-Calédonie: description phonologique et description syntaxique. Peeters Publishers.