Nuaulu phonology

Phonemes

In the Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian language group, Nuaulu has the least phonemes, with 16 total phonemes.

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless Stops	p	t	k
Nasals	m	n
Fricatives		s		h
Flaps		l
Laterals		r
Semivowels	w	y

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Nuaulu also has a glottal stop, but Bolton (1991) considers it non-phonemic. This is due to the lack of impact the glottal stop provides. The glottal stop provides more presence and emphasis towards the pronunciation of a word when placed within it, but in Nuaulu, it is mainly seen in the beginning of a word, taking the place of a consonant and lacking this presence.

Phonotactics

Nuaulu follows the syllable structure (C)V(N) and most combinations of this syllable structure are viable. There are special exception to this structure; the syllable N can be used by itself, and consonants [w] and [y] have restrictions. In 1991, inspection of the Nuaulu lexicon revealed that there are no words where the CV syllable structure had a consonant [w] pair with a high vowel. The consonant [y] is similar in this regard, where it does not pair with the high vowel [i] in the CV structure. However, it does have a word where [y] pairs with [u].

External links

• Nuaulu language