Central Asmat
Native toIndonesia
RegionAsmat Regency, South Papua
EthnicityAsmat people
Native speakers
(7,000 cited 1972)[1]
2,000 Yaosakor (1991), perhaps counted above
Language codes
ISO 639-3cns – inclusive code
Individual code:
asy – Yaosakor Asmat
Glottologcent2247

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

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n
Plosive p t tʃ k
Fricative f s ʝ
Rhotic r
Approximant w
  • /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, 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

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ə o
Low a
Phoneme Allophones
/i/ [i], [y], [ɪ]
/e/ [e], [ɛ], [ø]
/a/ [ä], [a], [æ]
/o/ [o], [ɤ], [ɔ]
/u/ [u], [ʉ]

References

  1. ↑ Central Asmat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Yaosakor Asmat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Usher, Timothy; Suter, Edgar (2020). "The Asmat-Muli Languages of Southwestern New Guinea" (PDF). Language & Linguistics in Melanesia. Port Moresby: Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea. 38. ISSN 0023-1959.
  3. ↑ Voorhoeve, Clemens L. (1965). The Flamingo Bay Dialect of the Asmat Language. The Hague: M.Nijhoff.
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