Ajië
RegionHouailou, New Caledonia
Native speakers
5,400 (2009 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3aji
Glottologajie1238
Ajië is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

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. nor. lab.
Stop voiceless p pʷ t c k kʷ (ʔ)
prenasal ᵐb ᵐbʷ ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑɡ ᵑɡʷ
Nasal m mʷ n ɲ ŋ
Fricative v vʷ ɣ
Rhotic ɾ r
Approximant l j w

A glottal stop only appears after oral vowels. Different speakers may realize /v/ as a bilabial sound /β/. Glide sounds [ɹ, ɻ] are heard as allophones of /r/.[2][3]

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i ɯu
High-mid e ə o
Low-mid ɛ ʌɔ
Low a
Glottal stop
Front Central Back
High iʔ ɯʔuʔ
High-mid eʔ əʔ oʔ
Low-mid ɛʔ ʌʔɔʔ
Low aʔ

In addition to this, vowel length is phonetically distinct in Ajië, bringing an additional sixteen vowels for a total of forty-eight total vowels. Only the plain oral and nasal vowels are displayed for simplicity.

Nasal vowels
Front Central Back
High ĩ ɯ̃ũ
High-mid ẽ ə̃ õ
Low-mid ɛ̃ ʌ̃ɔ̃
Low ã

References

  1. ↑ Ajië at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Tryon, Darrell T.; Aramiou, Sylvain; Euritein, Jean (1995). A'jië. In Darrell T. Tryon (ed.), Comparative Austronesian dictionary: an introduction to Austronesian studies, part 1: fascicle 1: Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 859–865.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  3. ↑ de La Fontinelle, Jacqueline (1976). La langue de Houailou, Nouvelle-Calédonie: description phonologique et description syntaxique. Peeters Publishers.


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