Shiaxa language

Shiaxa
South Awyu
Yenimu
Region	Papua, Indonesia
Native speakers	13,000 including Edera^[Ethn is broken again] (2002)[1]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Greater Awyu Awyu–Dumut Awyu Shiaxa
Dialects	Shiaxa Yenimu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	aws
Glottolog	sout2941

Shiaxa (Sjiagha) and Yenimu (Jénimu, Oser), together known as South Awyu, are a Papuan language or languages of Papua, Indonesia. Whether they constitute one language or two depends on one's criteria for a 'language'. The two varieties are,^[2]

• Bamgi River Awyu (Oser, Yenimu/Jénimu)
• Ia River Awyu (Shiaxa/Sjìagha)

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	k
	voiced	b	d	ɡ
Fricative		f	s	x
Tap			ɾ
Glide		w		j

• Word-initial voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/ may have prenasalized allophones [ᵐb, ⁿd, ᵑɡ] when the preceding word within a sentence ends in a vowel.
• /s/ may have an allophone of [ɕ] when preceding /i/, and may also have an affricate allophone [ts] in word-initial positions.
• /x/ may be voiced as [ɣ] in intervocalic positions.
• /n/ when in word-final position, may nasalize a preceding vowel [Ṽ].
• In the Yenimu dialect, /ɾ/ may also have lateral allophones as [l] or [ɺ].^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

References

1. Shiaxa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. New Guinea World - Awyu
3. Voorhoeve, C. L. (2001). Proto-Awyu-Dumut phonology II. In Andrew Pawley and Malcolm Ross and Darrell Tryon (eds.), The Boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian Linguistics in Honor of Tom Dutton: Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. pp. 361–381.

External links

• Shiaxa at the Awyu–Ndumut research group at VU University Amsterdam: [1]