// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Ankave language say? It's tongue-tied.

Ankave
Region	Kerema District, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	1,500 (2014)
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Angan Southwest Ankave
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	aak
Glottolog	anka1246

Ankave or Angave is a Papuan language spoken by the approximately 1,500 (as of 2014) Angave people in Kerema District, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea.

History

In 1987, Ankave had approximately 1,600 speakers. In a 2014 estimate, however, Ankave only had about 1,500 speakers.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		ɑ

Diphthongs: /iɑ eɑ ɑi oɑ/

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
Affricate	prenasal		ⁿdz
Fricative			s		x
Flap			ɾ
Semivowel				j	w

Writing system

An orthography using the Latin script has been developed for Angave, but less than 5% of its speakers are literate.

A a	B b	D d	E e	G g	I i	Ɨ ɨ	J j	K k	X x	M m
/ɑ/	/ᵐb/	/ⁿd/	/e/	/ɡ/	/i/	/ə/	/ⁿdz/	/k/	/x/	/m/
N n	Ŋ ŋ	O o	P p	R r	S s	T t	U u	W w	Y y	´
/n/	/ŋ/	/o/	/p/	/ɾ/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/w/	/j/	/ʔ/

Notes

• Speece, Richard F. (1992). "Ankave Organised Phonology Data". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Further reading

• Speece, Richard F. 1988. Phonological processes affecting segments in Angave. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 17(1/2): 1–139.

External links

• Ankave dictionary