Ajië language

Ajië
Ajië
Region	Houailou, New Caledonia
Native speakers	5,400 (2009 census)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic New Caledonian – Loyalties New Caledonian Southern South Southern Wailic 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	prenasal	ᵐb	ᵐbʷ	ⁿd		ᶮɟ	ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
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] or a retroflex [ɻ] is heard as an allophone of /r/.

Vowels

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

Glottal stop
	Front	Central	Back
High	iʔ		ɯʔ	uʔ
High-mid	eʔ	əʔ	oʔ
Low-mid	ɛʔ		ʌʔ	ɔʔ
Low		aʔ

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.