Huli language
Huli | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Region | Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea |
Ethnicity | Huli people |
Native speakers | 150,000 (2011)[1] |
Engan
| |
Latin script (Huli alphabet) Huli Braille | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | hui |
Glottolog | huli1244 |
Huli is a Tari language spoken by the Huli people of the Hela Province of Papua New Guinea. It has a pentadecimal (base-15) numeral system: ngui means 15, ngui ki means 15×2 = 30, and ngui ngui means 15×15 = 225.
Huli has a pandanus language called tayenda tu ha illili (bush divide taboo) used for collecting karuka nuts (anga) as well as hunting or traveling.[2] Tayenda is used to evade malevolent bush spirits.[2] The grammar for Tayenda is nearly identical to normal Huli, but the vocabulary is changed, often borrowing words from Duna but with changed meanings.[2]
Phonology[]
Huli has a syllable structure of (C)V.
Vowels[]
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i ĩ | u ũ |
Mid | e ẽ | o õ |
Open | ɑ ɑ̃ |
/ɑ/ is pronounced more fronted as [æ] before /r/ and /ʝ/.[3]
Vowel nasality is phonemic in the language. Vowels can also carry three phonemic tones; high-falling, mid-level, and low-rising.
Consonants[]
Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | |||
voiced | b | d | g | ||||
prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ||||
Fricative | ʝ | h | |||||
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
Approximant | w | ɭ | |||||
Trill | r |
Stops /p t k/ can become aspirated as [pʰ tʰ kʰ].
Many speakers pronounce /t/ as [s] before /i/.
/d/ is realized as voiceless as [d̥] when occurring word-initially, and is palatalized as [dʲ] between /i/ and a word-final /ɑ/.
/r/ only occurs word-medially.
/b ɡ/ can be phonetically realized as fricatives intervocalically as [β ɣ].
References[]
- ^ Huli at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Goldman, Laurence (1983). "Talking about talk". Talk Never Dies: The Language of Huli Disputes. London and New York: Tavistock Publications. pp. 254–257. ISBN 978-0422782104. OCLC 993340993.
- ^ Organised Phonology Data: Huli Language [HUI] Southern Highlands Province (PDF). 1992. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
- Lomas, Gabe (1988). The Huli language of Papua New Guinea. PhD Thesis, Macquarie University.
External links[]
- Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Huli
- Huli counting system
- Huli phonology
- "Counting and number in Huli", Brian Cheetam. Papua New Guinea Journal of Education[dead link]
- Engan languages
- Huli people
- Languages of Southern Highlands Province
- Pandanus avoidance registers