Fuyug (Fuyuge, Fuyughe, Mafulu) is a language of Papua New Guinea spoken in the Central Province of the country. The language's 14,000 speakers live in 300 villages in the Goilala District.
Phonology The usual orthographic convention used to transcribe Fuyug is to use a for , e for , y for , and the corresponding IPA characters for the remaining phonemes.
Vowels Fuyug possesses five vowel phonemes.
Front Back Close i u Mid ɛ o Open ɑ
The vowel is pronounced as the diphthong when word-final as well as before a word-final consonant. For example, ateg ("truth") is pronounced and ode ("where") as .
All vowels are nasalised before a nasal consonant, as in in ("pandanus") , ung ("nose") , em ("house") .
Consonants Fuyug has 14 consonant phonemes.
Labial Coronal Velar Plosive Voiceless p t k Voiced b d ɡ Fricative Voiceless f s Voiced v Nasal m n Approximant w j Liquid l
The voiceless plosive are aspirated in a word-final position and before : endanti ("outside") , oki ("fire") , eyak ("return") .
The nasal phoneme assimilates before a velar consonant becoming : yangos ("rain") .
The pronunciation of the liquid is in free variation between a lateral and a flap . However, with the exception of words of foreign origin where the word in the source language is written with an r, this is represented in the orthography as l.
Syllables Fuyug syllables come in the shape (C)V(C)(C). There cannot be more than two consonants adjacent to one another word-internally and the only final clusters permitted are mb, nd and ng. Within a word vowels may not follow one another.
Stress Stress in Fuyug is predictable. Stress falls on the final syllable in mono- and disyllabic words and on the antepenult in words of three of four syllables. Affixes do not alter the stressed syllable.
Morphophonology Certain suffixes (notably the illative -ti) cause a change in the end of the word to which it is attached: m assimilates to n before t: im + -ti → inti ("in the eye") l is elided before t: + -ti → ("in the heart") Voiced plosives are devoiced at the end of a word when the following word begins with a vowel or a voiceless consonant: + → ("a road"), + → ("a lot of sand"). an i is inserted between two consonant if the first is not l or a nasal: ev + -ti → eviti ("in the Sun"). With certain verbal suffixes an e is inserted: id + -ngo → idengo ("is sleeping"). When a root with a final vowel has suffix or clitic attached to it that begins with a vowel, the first vowel is deleted: ne + -a → na ("he eats").
Grammar
Personal pronouns Fuyug has personal pronouns for three numbers (singular, dual, plural) but not gender distinction.
Person Singular Dual Plural 1st na da di 2nd nu ya yi 3rd hu tu mu
These pronouns can take four different suffixes: the genitive -l or -le, the emphatic -ni, the comitative -noy and the contrastive -v.
Numerals Numerals in Fuyug are very restricted, having only fidan ("one") and ("two"). The numbers 3, 4 and 5 are composed of 1 and 2: 3: ("two its other") 4: ("two and two"); 5: ("two and two and its other").
After five English numerals are used (numbers less than five often do so as well). The quantifier ("a lot") is also used after three.
References
Bibliography