Ndrumbea language
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".<templatestyles src="Template:Infobox/styles-images.css" />Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters".
Ndrumbea, variously spelled Dumbea, Ndumbea, Dubea, Drubea and Païta, is a New Caledonian language that gave its name to the capital of New Caledonia, Nouméa, and the neighboring town of Dumbéa; it is also spoken in the nearby region of Païta.[1] It however has been displaced to villages outside the capital, with fewer than a thousand speakers remaining. Gordon (1995) estimates that there may only be two or three hundred. The Dubea are the people; the language has been called Naa Dubea (or more precisely Ṇã́ã Ṇḍùmbea) "language of Dubea".
Ndrumbea is one of the few Austronesian languages that is tonal, and it has a series of consonants that are also unusual for the region.
Phonology
Ndrumbea, like its close relative Numee, is a tonal language, with three contrasting tones, high, mid, and low.
Vowels
Ndrumbea has seven oral vowels, long and short. The mid front vowels are lower when short than long: Script error: No such module "IPA".. There are five nasal vowels, also long and short: Script error: No such module "IPA".. These interact with nasal consonants, described below. Back vowels do not occur after labialized consonants, Script error: No such module "IPA"., or Script error: No such module "IPA".. In addition to the complementary correlation of nasal vowels with nasal consonants, nasal vowels do not occur after Script error: No such module "IPA".. Script error: No such module "IPA".–oral vowel derives historically from Script error: No such module "IPA".–nasal vowel.
Phonetically, a stop–flap consonant cluster will be separated by an obscure epenthetic vowel with the quality of the following phonemic vowel.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| oralScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | nasalScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | oralScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | nasalScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | oralScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | nasalScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | |||||||
| shortScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | longScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | shortScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | longScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | shortScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | longScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | shortScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | longScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | shortScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | longScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | shortScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | longScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | |
| Close | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | ||||
| Near-close | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | |||||||||
| Close-mid | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | ||||
| Open-mid | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | ||||||||||
| Open | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Template:IPA link | Script error: No such module "IPA". | ||||||||
Consonants
Nasal vowels once contrasted after nasal stops, as they still do in Numee. However, in Ndrumbea, nasal stops partially denasalized before oral vowels, so that now prenasalized stops precede oral vowels, and nasal stops precede nasal vowels. Similarly, Script error: No such module "IPA". only occurs before oral vowels.
The fricatives Script error: No such module "IPA". are sometimes realized as approximants Script error: No such module "IPA".. However, the approximants Script error: No such module "IPA". are never fricated. The nasal stop Script error: No such module "IPA". sometimes has incomplete closure, producing a nasalized approximant Script error: No such module "IPA".. The Script error: No such module "IPA". is most often a tap Script error: No such module "IPA"., sometimes an approximant Script error: No such module "IPA"., and occasionally an alveolar tap or trill, Script error: No such module "IPA". or Script error: No such module "IPA".. It does not occur word initially, and does not contrast with Script error: No such module "IPA". word medially. It tends to be nasalized before a nasal vowel, Script error: No such module "IPA". with the nasality spreading to preceding vowels: Script error: No such module "IPA". "to run" has been recorded as Script error: No such module "IPA"..
Ndrumbea contrasts three coronal places, articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue contacting the roof of the mouth: Script error: No such module "IPA"., Script error: No such module "IPA"., Script error: No such module "IPA". and their nasal homologs. Script error: No such module "IPA". is apical, in contrast to laminal Script error: No such module "IPA".. It is not clear if Script error: No such module "IPA". is apico-dental or denti-alveolar, but it has a sharp release burst. Script error: No such module "IPA"., on the other hand, has a noisy release and approaches an affricate, Script error: No such module "IPA".. It may actually be closer to an alveolar than post-alveolar, and appears to be enunciated more forcefully than Script error: No such module "IPA".. Script error: No such module "IPA". also has a fricated release, and for many speakers this is longer than that of Script error: No such module "IPA".. All consonants labeled as Dental or Postalveolar (with the exception of Script error: No such module "IPA".) are coronal consonants.
References
- Ndrumbea language alphabet and pronunciation at Omniglot
Script error: No such module "Portal".
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Shintani T. L. A. & Païta Y. (1990a) Grammaire de la langue de Païta. Nouméa: Sociéte d'Etudes Historiques de Nouvelle-Calédonie.
- Shintani T. L. A. & Païta Y. (1990b) Dictionnaire de la langue de Païta. Nouméa: Sociéte d'Etudes Historiques de Nouvelle-Calédonie.
Template:Languages of New Caledonia Template:Southern Oceanic languages Template:Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages