// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Wutung language say to its friend? "You tutung me wrong
| Wutung | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea, Indonesia |
| Region | Sandaun (Papua New Guinea), Papua (Indonesia) |
| Ethnicity | 580 inhabitants of Wutung village (2010)[1] |
Native speakers | 900 (2015)[2] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wut |
| Glottolog | wutu1244 |
| ELP | Wutung |
| Coordinates: 2°36′31″S 141°00′37″E / 2.60857°S 141.010203°E | |
Wutung (Udung), Musu, and Nyao, are dialects of an unnamed Skou language of Papua New Guinea. They are spoken in Bewani/Wutung Onei Rural LLG of Sandaun Province and in Jayapura, province of Papua, Indonesia. They each take their name from the village in which they are spoken.
Sangke and the languages of several other villages of the interior are reported to be similar, and may be dialects.
Tok Pisin and English are widely spoken in the area, and many Wutung people speak Indonesian too.[3][4]
Location
[edit]Wutung village (2°36′31″S 141°00′37″E / 2.60857°S 141.010203°E) is on the coast of Sandaun Province, adjacent to the border with Indonesia. There are about 600 people living in Wutung village, most of whom speak Wutung. Traditional Wutung land extends across the border to the Tami River, but while people travel across the border to their garden plots in that area most live in Wutung village. Some Wutung people live on the Indonesian side in Papua, having married Indonesian citizens.[5]
The nearby villages of Musu (12 km east on the coast, at 2°37′40″S 141°06′06″E / 2.627641°S 141.10172°E—not to be confused with Warung Moso about 10 kms west of the border, in Indonesia) and Nyao Kono (about 12 km due south, at 2°48′28″S 141°03′15″E / 2.80788°S 141.054278°E) have closely related language varieties which are usually referred to by their village names (Musu and Nyao). These three speech varieties are very closely related and are mutually intelligible.
Wutung village has the only official land border crossing in Papua New Guinea and so has various related facilities such as a customs and immigration office and associated officials.[6]
Phonology
[edit]Wutung has fifteen consonants and seven vowels, six of which have nasal variants. This gives a total of 28 phonemes. Wutung also makes suprasegmental distinctions in tone.
Consonants
[edit]Wutung is one of the very few languages that lack velar consonants.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive or Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||
| Fricative | f | s | h | ||
| Approximant | w | l | |||
Vowels
[edit]Wutung has thirteen vowels, which includes seven oral and six nasal vowels. The table below shows the oral vowels. Each of these vowels, apart from the close-mid vowel ur /ɵ/, has an equivalent nasal vowel. The nasal vowels are indicated using the same symbol as the equivalent oral, but with a following ng, e.g. ca, 'pig' vs. cang 'blossom', the latter having the nasal vowel.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i /i/ |
u /u/ | |
| Mid | ey /e/ |
ur /ɵ/ |
o /o/ |
| Open | e /ɛ/ |
a /a/ |
Pronouns
[edit]Wutung has a simple system of personal pronouns with three persons (1st, 2nd and 3rd), two numbers (singular and plural) and gender in the third person singular pronouns. The same set of pronouns are used for object and subject.
I nie we netu thou me you etu he qey they tetu she cey
External links
[edit]- Paradisec has an open access collection of Don Laycock’s materials that includes Zimakani language materials
References
[edit]- ↑ Wutung at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
- ↑ Wutung at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ↑ Marmion, Doug, Wutung: A Papuan language of the Sko Phylum spoken in Sandaun Province, PNG, Research Data Australia, doi:10.4225/72/56E824BE363A0, retrieved 2022-08-31
- ↑ Marmion, Douglas E. (2010), Topics in the Phonology and Morphology of Wutung (PDF), Canberra: Australian National University, pp. 6, 13–15, archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-04-15
- ↑ Arinto, Singgih P.; Pidjath, Dawit T. (2015). Skouw-Wutung, Sejengkal Tanah Sejuta Keunikan (in Indonesian). Yogyakarta: Leutika Prio. pp. 1–106. ISBN 978-602-371-026-3.
- ↑ "Skouw and Wutung Border Crossing-Border Crossing Hub". Retrieved 26 July 2026.