// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Tanggu language say to its friend? "You tang me up

Tanggu
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Madang Province
Native speakers	(3,000 cited 1991)
Language family	Ramu Ramu proper Tamolan–Ataitan Ataitan Tanggu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tgu
Glottolog	tang1355
ELP	Tangu

Tanggu (Tangu, Tanggum) is a Ramu language of Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Dorsal
Plosive	p	t		k
Prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿdʒ	ᵑg
Fricative	β	s z		ʁ
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Approximant		r	j

• /m/ can occur syllabically [m̩] word-initially.
• /ʁ/ is heard as [ɣ] before /i/.
• /ⁿdʒ/ is pronounced [z~j] in the Wagi dialect.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

• /ɨ/ almost always occurs only in unstressed syllables and diphthongs.

Additionally, the following diphthongs have been observed: /ia/, /ɨa/, /ai/, /ui/, /au/, /ua/. /ai/ is realised as [æ] word-finally.