Korowai language

Korowai (Kolufaup) is a Trans-New-Guinean language spoken in South Papua, Indonesia. It is spoken by the Korowai people who live along the Becking River.

Korowai
Kolufaup
Region	Becking River, South Papua, Indonesia
Ethnicity	Korowai
Native speakers	3,500 (2007)^[1]
Language family	Trans-New Guinea Asmat-Awyu-Ok Greater Awyu Becking-Dawi Korowai
Language codes
ISO 639-3	khe
Glottolog	koro1312
ELP	Korowai

Phonology

Consonants^[2]

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	p b	t d	ɟ ⟨j⟩	k g
Prenasalized	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩	ⁿd ⟨nd⟩		ᵑg ⟨ngg⟩
Fricative	ɸ ⟨f⟩	s		x ⟨kh⟩
Nasal	m	n
Approximant	w	l	j ⟨y⟩, ɥ ⟨hü⟩

• /b/ and /d/ are in free variation with [ɓ] and [ɗ] respectively.
• /ɸ x/ can be voiced [β ɣ] intervocalically.

Vowels^[2]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y ⟨ü⟩		u
Mid-high	e ⟨é⟩	(ə ⟨e⟩)
Mid-low	ɛ ⟨è⟩		ɔ ⟨o⟩
Low		a

• /e/ can be heard as [ɪ] in unstressed syllables.
• /a/ can vary to [æ] in stressed syllables.
• /ɔ/ is pronounced [o] before /w/.
• All vowels are lengthened in stressed syllables and word-finally.
• /ə/ is epenthetic and is never in stressed syllables.

Stress is unpredictable and phonemic.^[2]

Notes

1. Korowai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. de Vries, Lourens; van Enk, Gerrit J. (1997). The Korowai of Irian Jaya: Their Language and its Cultural Context. Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics. Vol. 9. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195105513.

References

• Hughes, Jock. 2009. Upper Digul Survey. SIL International.