Waropen language

Waropen
Native to	Indonesia
Region	West Papua and Papua
Native speakers	(6,000 cited 1987)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Eastern Malayo-Polynesian South Halmahera–West New Guinea Waropen
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wrp
Glottolog	waro1242

Waropen is an Austronesian language spoken at the Cendrawasih Bay of Indonesian Papua. It is a primary branch of the South Halmahera–West New Guinea languages.

Dialects are Waropen Kai, Napan, and Ambumi.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Fricative		f	s		ɣ	(h)
Rhotic			r
Approximant		w		j

/w/ can also be heard as a fricative [β].

/h/ may also exist phonemically in other dialects.^[2]

Sounds /w, j/ can be heard as vowels [ʊ, ɪ] when after vowel sounds.^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	ɛ ~ e	ə	ɔ
Open		a

/ɛ/ may be pronounced as [ɛ] or [e].^[2]

Distribution

In Papua province, it is spoken in Mamberamo Raya Regency and Waropen Regency. The Ambumi dialect also called Waruri is spoken in Ambumi village in Wondama Bay Regency, West Papua.^[4] Waropen is also spoken southwest to the Rombak River mouth.

References

1. Waropen at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Held, Gerrit J. (1942). Grammatica van het Waropensch (Nederlandsch Noord Nieuw-Guinea). A.C. Nix, Bandoeng.
3. Flassy, Don A.L.; Animung, Lisidus; Sawaki, Rachel (1994). Fonologi bahasa Waropen. Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.
4. Suryawan, I Ngurah (2018-10-27). "Kampung Papua, Antara Eksploitasi dan Konservasi (1)". tatkala.co. Retrieved 2024-06-07.