Central Asmat language

Central Asmat is a Papuan language of West New Guinea, spoken by the Asmat people.

Dialects

Central Asmat has a number of dialects, which are:^[2]

• Keenok
• Sokoni
• Keenakap
• Kawenak (subdialects: Simai, Kainak, Mismam, Mecemup)

Yaosakor Asmat, assigned its own ISO code, is a variety of Central Asmat, not a distinct language.

Phonology

Consonants

• /p/ can be heard as a fricative [ɸ] when in intervocalic positions, as [pʷ] in the speech of older speakers when preceding /e/.
• /tʃ/ can be heard as a palatalized [tʲ] when in word-final positions following /i/.
• /k/ can be heard as a fricative [x] when following a vowel and preceding a consonant.
• /s/ can be heard as fricatives [θ] or [ʃ] among some older speakers.
• /r/ can be heard as a flap [ɾ] in word-medial and word-final positions.
• /ʝ/ can be heard as [dʒ] or [j] in word-initial positions.
• Nasals /m, n/ may fluctuate to voiced stops [b, d] in word-initial positions, and as prenasal stops [ᵐb, ⁿd] when in syllable-initial positions.^[3]

Vowels

References