Wahgi language

Wahgi is a language spoken by around 100,000 people living in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. It belongs to a group of languages called the Chimbu–Wahgi branch, which is part of a larger family known as Trans–New Guinea languages.

Like some other Chimbu languages, Wahgi has special sounds called lateral consonants that make it unique and interesting to language experts. These sounds add to the richness and diversity of the many languages spoken in Papua New Guinea.

Studying languages like Wahgi helps us understand how people communicate and share their culture, traditions, and history through words and sounds. It shows us the incredible variety of human language and how each one has its own special qualities.

Phonology

Consonants

The Wahgi language has special sounds called dental consonants, which are made by closing part of the vocal tract in a unique way. These sounds can change slightly depending on their position in a word.

Prenasalized consonants combine a nasal sound with another consonant. When not at the start of a word, the nasal part can act like a syllable on its own but with a lower tone and no stress.

Nasals and semivowels don’t change much, except for one nasal that can sometimes sound different. Most other consonants change based on their position in the word.

The southern Kuma dialect of Wahgi has special lateral sounds, though one type is not very common. In certain situations, these lateral sounds change to fit the surrounding sounds.

Vowels

The vowel /a/ usually sounds like [ä] but changes to [ɐ] before certain consonants. In the middle of words, it can sometimes sound like [æ].

The vowel /ɔ/ generally sounds like [ɔ], but before nasal sounds, it becomes [ɒ]. At the end of words, it can sometimes sound like [o].

The vowel /u/ can become a soft lip sound [ʷ] between certain consonants and stressed [i] or [ɪ].

All vowels sound like [ɪ̈] in unstressed endings of words.

In fast speech, unstressed /u/, /ɪ/, and /e/ can disappear between stressed syllables. For example, /ˈpetepˈka/ can sound like [ˈpeɾpˈka] when spoken quickly.

Tone and stress

Wahgi uses three main word tones instead of having a tone for each syllable. Every word has at least one syllable with a high tone, creating patterns like high, rising, and falling tones in words with one or two syllables, and more complex patterns in longer words. Stress also exists but is hard to study.

In words with one or two syllables, the three tones sound high, rising, and falling. In longer words, tones follow specific patterns depending on the number of syllables.

Phonotactics

The longest possible syllable in Wahgi is CVCC, and the shortest is just a vowel (but not /ɪ/). Most consonants can start a syllable, but the three laterals cannot. Most consonants can end a syllable, except semivowels and /ng/.

When two consonants end a syllable, the first can only be /p/, /t/, /k/, /l̪/, or /ʟ/, and the second can only be /m/ or /s/.

Words in Wahgi can have from one to nine syllables. Very short words can be just a vowel or a consonant-vowel pair. Some vowel sounds cannot start or end a word.

The language allows certain vowel and consonant clusters inside words, and in fast speech, additional clusters can appear.

Wahgi consonants
		Bilabial	(palatalized) dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n̪~n̪ʲ	n		ŋ
Obstruent	oral	p	s̪~ɕ̪	t		k
Obstruent	prenasalised	ᵐb	ⁿd̪z̪~ⁿd̪ʑ̪	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
Lateral			ɬ̪~ɬ̪ʲ	ɺ		ʟ
Semivowel		w			j

Consonantal allophones
	word-initial	word-medial	word-final	word-initial, phrase-medial	word-final, phrase-medial
/p/	p~b pʷ~bʷ	p~b	pʰ~ɸ		pʰ~ɸ~pᵊ
/mb/	ᵐp~ᵐb	mp~mb	mpʰ~mɸ		mpʰ~mɸ~mpᵊ
/s/	t̪~t̪s̪~s̪~t̪ɕ~ɕ s̪ʷ	t̪s̪~s̪~t̪ɕ~ɕ t̪	t̪s̪~s̪~t̪ɕ~ɕ
/nz/	ⁿd̪~ⁿd̪z̪~ⁿd̪ʑ~ⁿt̪~ⁿt̪s̪~ⁿt̪ɕ	n̪d̪~n̪d̪z̪~n̪d̪ʑ~n̪t̪~n̪t̪s̪~n̪t̪ɕ	n̪t̪~n̪t̪s̪~n̪t̪ɕ~n̪s̪~n̪ɕ
/t/	t~d tʷ	ɾ~r	r̥	t~d ɾ~r	ɾ~r~r̥ t̚
/nd/	ⁿt~ⁿd	nt~nd	ntʰ		ntʰ~ntᵊ
/k/	k~ɡ kʷ~ɡʷ	k~ɡ ŋ (?)	kʰ
/ng/	ᵑk~ᵑɡ ᵑɡʷ	ŋk~ŋɡ	(does not occur)
/ɬ̪/	(do not occur)	ɬ̪ˢ̪~ɬ̪~ɮ̪	ɬ̪ˢ̪~ɬ̪
/ɺ/		ɺ̥~ɺ̥~ɺ̥tʰ~ɺ̥tr̥~ɺ̥r̥~ɺ~ɺ̥d	ɺ̥~ɺ̥~ɺ̥tʰ~ɺ̥tr̥~ɺ̥r̥
/ʟ/		ʟ~kʟ~ʟ̝~ɢ̆	ʟ~kʟ

Wahgi vowels
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-close	ɪ
Mid	e		ɔ
Open		ä

Evolution

Here are some sounds from an old language that help show how the Wahgi language changed over time. These sounds come from work done by researchers in the 1970s and 2012.

The researcher also looked at similar sounds in other languages like Apali, Kalam, Kâte, Selepet, Binandere, Katei, Kiwai, Telefol, and Asmat to help understand these changes.

proto-Trans-New Guinea	Middle Wahgi
*ma- ‘NEG clitic’	ma ‘no!’
*ma(n,k,L)[a] ‘ground’	maɫ
*maŋgV ‘compact round object’	muŋ ‘fruit, nut, lump’
*mo(k,ŋg)Vm ‘joint’	mokum, mokem ‘knuckle, joint’
*mundun-maŋgV ‘heart’	mund-muŋ
*mV ‘taro’	mi
*mV(k,ŋ)V[C] + t(e,i)- ‘vomit’	mek (si-) ‘vomit’, mek ‘vomitus’
*am(a,i) ‘mother’	ama
*amu ‘breast’	am
*niman ‘louse’	numan
*n(o,u)man ‘mind, soul’	numan ‘thought, mind, will’
*kumV- ‘die’	kumb- ‘(of fire) die’
*mo(k,ŋg)Vm ‘joint’	mokum, mokem, (angeɫ) mokem ‘knuckle, joint’
*na- ‘eat’	no-
*niman ‘louse’	numan
*n(o,u)man ‘mind, soul’	numan ‘thought, mind, will’
*mundun ‘internal organs’	(?) mundun mo- ‘be pot-bellied’
*niman ‘louse’	numan
*n(o,u)man ‘mind, soul’	numan
*mundu[n]-maŋgV ‘heart’	mund-muŋ
*ŋaŋ[a] ‘baby’	ŋaŋ ‘small male child’
*ambi ‘man’	(?) amb ‘woman’, ambi- ‘wife’
*imbi ‘name’	embe(m)
*pu- ‘go’	pu
*apa ‘father’	apa- ‘maternal uncle’
*mund-mangV ‘heart’	mund-mung
*tVk- ‘cut, cut off’	tuk- ‘chop’
*maŋgV ‘compact round object’	mungum ‘kidney’
*maŋgV ‘compact round object’	muŋ ‘fruit, nut, lump’
*mundu[n]-maŋgV ‘heart’	mund-muŋ
*kakV- ‘carry on shoulder’	(?) kau- ‘carry on head or shoulder’
*tVk- ‘cut, cut off’	tuk- ‘chop’
*muk ‘blue’	muk
*mV(k,ŋ)V[C] + t(e,i)- ‘vomit’	mek (si-), mek ‘vomitus’
*ma(n,k,l)[a] ‘ground’	maɫ ‘ground, soil, world’
*nok ‘water’	noɫ
*ŋaŋ[a] ‘baby’	ŋaɫ ‘small baby’, ŋaŋa ‘male child’
*-i(t,l) ‘2DL verbal suffix’	-iɫ

Semantics

Middle Wahgi has special words to describe colors. It has 14 words for different colors and shades, like "white," "black," "blue," "green," "brown," "red," "orange," "pink," and "yellow." It also has words for patterns such as stripes, spots, and mixed colors.

The language also has many words for days, not just "today," "tomorrow," or "yesterday." It has words for days up to ten days away in both directions.

Dictionary

The first dictionary for Middle Wahgi was created in 1975 by Evelyn Ramsey, a medical missionary from the Church of the Nazarene.