Western Dani language

Western Dani
Western Dani
Laani
Region	Highlands of Papua Province, Indonesia
Ethnicity	Lani
Native speakers	(180,000 cited 1993)
Language family	Trans–New Guinea West Trans–New Guinea Irian Highlands ? Dani languages Dani proper Western Dani; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dnw
Glottolog	west2594
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Western Dani, or Laani, is the most populous Papuan language in Indonesian New Guinea. It is spoken by the Lani people in the province of Papua. The tribes are called Oeringoep and Timorini in literature from the 1920s, but those names are no longer used.

Phonology[]

The phonology of the Western Dani language:^[2]

Consonants
		Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar		Glottal
		Bilabial	Alveolar	plain	lab.	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p (pʰ)	t (tʰ)	k (kʰ)	kʷ (kʷʰ)	ʔ
Plosive	prenasal	mb	nd	ŋɡ	ŋɡʷ
Fricative		β		ɣ	ɣʷ
Flap			ɾ
Nasal		m	n
Lateral			l
Approximant		w	ɹ

At the beginning of words, stops sound aspirated. An intervocalic /ɣ/ is pronounced as [ʁ], and a /ɹ/ before a high vowel becomes a fricative [z].

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		ɒ ɒː
Low		ɐ ɐː

Vowels /i, u, ɒ/ have allophones, [ɪ, ʊ, ɔ].

References[]

^ Western Dani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
^ Barclay, Peter (2008). A Grammar of Western Dani.

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[e18-1] Western Dani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)

[2] Barclay, Peter (2008). A Grammar of Western Dani.

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