// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Iduna language say to its student? "You're idun to learn.
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (February 2025) |
| Iduna | |
|---|---|
| Vivigani | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Milne Bay Province (Goodenough Island) |
Native speakers | (6,000 cited 1984)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | viv |
| Glottolog | idun1242 |
Iduna is an Austronesian language spoken on Goodenough Island of Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea.
Phonology
[edit]Consonants
[edit]The inventory of the Iduna language consists of 14 consonant phonemes.[2]
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | Voiceless | t | k | ʔ | ||
| Voiced | b | d | g | |||
| Fricative | Voiceless | f | ||||
| Voiced | v | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | h | ||
Voiced plosives generally contrast with their unvoiced counterparts, except for the bilabial series, where /b/ varies freely between [b] and [p]. Moreover, the phoneme /g/ is commonly realized as [g], though for some speakers it may be pronounced as a voiced fricative [ɣ] without contrast. Finally, /t/ has also two allophonic realizations: [t] occurs word-initially and word-medially before non-front vowels /a/, /o/ or /u/, whereas [s] only appears before front vowels /i/ or /e/.[3] Other minor allophonic realizations may occur. Among these variations only the last one is reflected in the orthography.
| Phoneme | Allophones | Context |
|---|---|---|
| /b/ | [b ~ p], [bʷ] | free variant; [bʷ] before non-syllabic /u/ |
| /f/ | [f], [fʷ] | Normally [f]; [fʷ] before non-syllabic /u/ |
| /k/ | [k], [kʷ] | Normally [k]; [kʷ] before non-syllabic /u/ |
| /g/ | [g ~ ɣ], [gʷ] | free variant; [gʷ] before non-syllabic /u/ |
| /t/ | [t], [s] | [s] before /i/ and /e/; [t] elsewhere |
| /d/ | [d], [tʰ] | [tʰ] before /i/ in final syllable position only; [d] elsewhere |
| /m/ | [m], [mʷ] | Normally [m]; [mʷ] before non-syllabic /u/ |
Vowels
[edit]There are five vowel phonemes in Iduna.[2]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Low | a |
Vowels have allophones too. The major allophonic variations are described in the following table. These include the double realization of /a/, which corresponds to [a] when found in stressed syllables, while it approximates [ʌ] in unstressed environments, and the nasal allophonic variant of /u/.[4]
| Phoneme | Allophone | Context |
|---|---|---|
| /a/ | [a], [ʌ] | [a] in stressed syllable; [ʌ] elsewhere |
| /u/ | [u], [ũ] | [ũ] following /m/; [u] elsewhere |
The language also has four monomoraic diphthongs: /ai/, /au/, /ao/ and /oi/. These are distinguished from vowel sequences, which instead are bimoraic, e.g. the word giyauna [gi.jau.nʌ] 'he scrapes it' contrasts with giyauna [gi.ja.u.nʌ] 'he unties it'.[5]
Phonotactics
[edit]In Iduna consonant clusters are forbidden; therefore, there are only open syllables of type V, CV and CVV. Also, the special kind of sequence CuV is generally interpreted as CʷV.
Writing system
[edit]The Iduna alphabet is shown in the following table:[6]
| A a | B b | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | L l |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [a] | [b] | [d] | [ɛ] | [f] | [g] | [h] | [i] | [l] |
| M m | O o | S s | T t | U u | V v | W w | Y y | ʼ |
| [m] | [ɔ] | [s] | [t] | [u] | [v] | [w] | [j] | [ʔ] |
Notes
[edit]- ↑ Iduna at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- 1 2 Sampson and Huckett (1965), pp. 3–4.
- ↑ Sampson and Huckett (1965), pp. 10–13.
- ↑ Sampson and Huckett (1965), pp. 20–21.
- ↑ Sampson and Huckett (1965), pp. 7–8.
- ↑ Sampson and Huckett (1965), p. 30.
References
[edit]- Sampson, Nancy; Huckett, Joyce (1965). Vivigani Phonemes (PDF) (draft). Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Retrieved February 21, 2019.
- Huckett, Joyce (1974). "Notes on Iduna Grammar" (PDF). In Healey, Alan (ed.). Three studies in languages of eastern Papua. Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages 3. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). pp. 63–133. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
- Huckett, Joyce (1976). "Iduna Sentence Structure" (PDF). In Loving, Richard (ed.). Grammatical studies in Suena and Iduna. Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages 15. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). pp. 127–262. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
- Huckett, Joyce (n.d.). Vivigani language lessons (PDF) (draft). Papua New Guinea: Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Retrieved February 21, 2019.