Hamtai language

Category:Articles with short descriptionCategory:Short description is different from Wikidata
Hamtai
Hamday
Kapau
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMorobe Province, Gulf Province
Native speakers
(45,000 cited 1998)Category:Language articles with old speaker data[1]
Trans–New Guinea
Dialects
  • Wenta
  • Howi
  • Pmasa'a
  • Hamtai Proper
  • Kaintiba
Language codes
ISO 639-3hmt
Glottologhamt1247

Hamtai (also called Hamday or Kapau) is the most populous of the Angan languages of Papua New Guinea. It is also known as Kamea, Kapau, and Watut. Dialects are Wenta, Howi, Pmasa’a, Hamtai proper, and Kaintiba.[1] The language was unwritten until 2009.[2]

Phonology

In Hamtai, there are 14 consonants, 7 vowels, and two tones (rising and falling).

Vowels

Table of vowels in Hamtai[3][4]
Front Central Back
Close i
/i/		i
/ɨ/		u
/u/
Close-mid e
/e/		 o
/o/
Open-mid ä, aa
/ʌ/
Open a
/a/

Consonants

Table of consonant phonemes in Hamtai[3]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m
/m/		 n
/n/		 ng
/ŋ/
Plosive p
/p/		 t
/t/		 k
/k/		 k̥/q
/q/		 '
/ʔ/
Approximant voiced y
/j/		 w
/w/
unvoiced wh
/w̥/
Fricative voiced v
/v/
unvoiced f
/f/		 h
/h/

References

  1. 1 2 Hamtai at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access iconCategory:Language articles citing Ethnologue 25
  2. ↑ "John Allen Chau: Do missionaries help or harm?". BBC News. 28 November 2018.
  3. 1 2 Healy, Alan (1981). The Phonological Complexity of Kapau. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. p. 95.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)Category:CS1 maint: publisher location
  4. ↑ Oates, W.; Oates, L. (1968). Kapau pedagogical grammar. Pacific Linguistics. Vol. C-10. Canberra, Australia: The Australian National University. pp. 7–8. doi:10.15144/PL-C10. ISBN 0-85883-06-2-0.
Category:Languages of Gulf Province Category:Languages of Morobe Province Category:Angan languages
Category:All stub articles Category:Angan languages Category:Articles with short description Category:CS1 maint: publisher location Category:Language articles citing Ethnologue 25 Category:Language articles with old speaker data Category:Languages of Gulf Province Category:Languages of Morobe Province Category:Papuan language stubs Category:Short description is different from Wikidata