Nama language (Papuan)

Not to be confused with Nama language or Nema language.

Nama
Region	Western Province (Papua New Guinea)
Native speakers	1,200 (2018)
Language family	Yam Nambu Nama
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nmx
Glottolog	nama1266

Nama (or Noraia) is a Yam language spoken in Western Province, Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
		plain	lab.				plain	lab.
Nasal		m	mʷ	n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	(p)		t			k	kʷ
	voiced	b		d	d͡ʒ		ɡ	(ɡʷ)
	prenasal	ᵐb	ᵐbʷ	ⁿd	ⁿd͡ʒ		ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
Fricative		ɸ	ɸʷ	s			ɣ
Rhotic				r
Lateral				l
Approximant						j	w

• Sounds /p/ and /ɡʷ/ only occur marginally.
• Sounds /t, d, ⁿd/ may range in articulation, varying from dental [t̪, d̪, ⁿd̪] to alveolar [t, d, ⁿd].
• /r/ can be heard as a tap [ɾ] when in rapid speech and in consonant clusters.
• /ɸ/ can become voiced as [β] when intervocalically or word-finally.
• /ɣ/ can also be heard as [ɰ] in some contexts.
• Sounds /n, r/ can occur as geminates [nː, rː].

Vowels

	Front		Central	Back
Close	i	y		u
Near-close	ɪ
Mid	e	ø	ə	o
Near-open	æ
Open			a

• Sounds /i, o, u/ can be heard as [ɪ], [ɔ], [ʊ, ʉ] within diphthongs.