Ajië language

Ajië
Ajië
Region	Houailou, New Caledonia
Native speakers	5,400 (2009 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic New Caledonian – Loyalties New Caledonian Southern South Southern Ajië; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	aji
Glottolog	ajie1238

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[]

Consonants[]

		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		nor.	lab.	Alveolar		Palatal	nor.	lab.	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	pʷ	t		c	k	kʷ	(ʔ)
Stop	voiced	b	bʷ	d		ɟ	ɡ	ɡʷ
Nasal		m	mʷ	n		ɲ	ŋ
Fricative		v	vʷ				ɣ
Rhotic				ɾ	r
Approximant						j		w

A glottal stop, only appears after oral vowels. Different speakers may realize /v/ as a bilabial sound /β/. A nasal trill [r̃] is heard as an allophone of /r/.

Vowels[]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ɯ	u
High-mid	e	ə	o
Low-mid	ɛ		��	ɔ
Low		a

Nasal vowels[]

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

^[2]

References[]

^ Ajië at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ de La Fontinelle, Jacqueline (1976). La langue de Houailou, Nouvelle-Calédonie: description phonologique et description syntaxique. Peeters Publishers.

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[e18-1] Ajië at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] La Fontinelle, Jacqueline (1976). La langue de Houailou, Nouvelle-Calédonie: description phonologique et description syntaxique. Peeters Publishers.

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