Wogeo language

Wogeo
Wogeo
Region	Vokeo and Koil islands, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	1,600 (2003)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic Schouten Kairiru–Manam Manam Wogeo; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	woc
Glottolog	woge1237
ELP	Wogeo

Wogeo (Vokeo) is an Austronesian language of northeast New Guinea. It is spoken on Koil and Vokeo islands of Wewak Islands Rural LLG.

Morphophonology

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	b	t d		k g
Fricative	f	s
Approximant	ʋ	l	j
Rhotic		r

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i^[a]	u^[a]
Mid	e	o^[b]
Open	a

^ ^a ^b /i u/ realized as glides with the posterior vowel: /ɪ̯ ʊ̯/.
^ May be realized as /ʷ/ or /w/ as long as it does not occur on the boundary of two morphemes.

Words in Wogeo have lexical stress—it creates both lexical and grammatical distinctions, primarily realized through lengthening and changing the quality of the stressed vowel. The accent can be on the penultimate or ultimate syllable, with the penultimate accent considered unmarked. Compare lima [ˈɫ̺ɪːmɐʔ] ‘hand’ with limá [ɫ̺ɪˈmaʔ] ‘his/her hand’.

Vowel assimilation in Wogeo occurs mainly within word forms, with total or partial assimilation of tongue height. Elisions of vowels are morphologically and somewhat lexically determined.

Verbal reduplication in Wogeo expresses imperfective aspect and can take different forms depending on the phonological structure of the verb.

Adjectival reduplication in Wogeo is a common phenomenon, with reduplicated adjectives being more prevalent than non-reduplicated ones. There are also traces of an older adjectival reduplication pattern in certain lexemes, where the reduplication is fully lexicalized, and no longer recognized as such by speakers.

Reduplicated nouns are less common than reduplicated adjectives or verbs, and they serve either to denote 'affiliation/similarity' or to express 'continuous/discrete plurality'. It is important to note that some proper names also show traces of old reduplication processes.

Sources

^ Wogeo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

References

Exter, Mats, (2003) Phonetik und Phonologie des Wogeo. Arbeitspapier (Universität zu Köln. Institut für Sprachwissenschaft); Nr. 46

External links

Word lists for Wogeo included in the Robert Blust collection in the Kaipuleohone archive

This article about North New Guinea languages is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[a-2] /i u/ realized as glides with the posterior vowel: /ɪ̯ ʊ̯/.

[b-3] May be realized as /ʷ/ or /w/ as long as it does not occur on the boundary of two morphemes.

[e18-1] Wogeo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

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