The Nemi language is a Kanak language of the Austronesian language family spoken by 320 people in the north of New Caledonia, in the commune of Hienghène. Dialects include Ouanga, Ouélis, and Kavatch.Isabelle Bril, Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre, Complex Predicates in Oceanic Languages: Studies in the Dynamics of Binding and Boundness (2012), p. 389.
Phonology The phonology of Nemi is as follows:
+ Consonants Labiovelar Labial Apical Sibilant Palatal Velar Glottal Occlusive Nasal voiced voiceless Semi-nasal prenasalized postnasalized Oral tenuis aspirated () Continuant voiced voiceless Nasal voiced voiceless Vibrant
As is common in Oceanic linguistics, the term 'labiovelar' encompasses two classes of consonants: six velarized bilabial occlusives ; and four labial–velar approximants .
The phoneme possibly corresponds to an etymological *, a phonological gap.
Some speakers have a simplified inventory of consonants in medial position, with oral occlusives and voiceless continuants generally merging into voiced continuants and (in the case of alveolars) the vibrant, and postnasalized and voiceless nasal occlusives into voiced nasals, with the exception of loanwords. For those speakers, a similar allophonic free variation can also produce , , and in initial positions in less careful speech.
In final position, only eight phonemes contrast: .
+ VowelsFrontCentralBack High Mid Low
Vowels may be allophonically nasalized before prenasalized consonants and after nasal and postnasalized consonants. The vowel /u/ is fronted before /v/.
Lexical stress generally falls on the initial syllable.
References
Bibliography
External links Information about the Nemi language