ʼAuhelawa language

ʼAuhelawa
ʼAuhelawa
Kurada
Native to	Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea
Region	Nuakata Island
Native speakers	950 (2015)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Papuan Tip Nuclear Suauic ʼAuhelawa; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kud
Glottolog	auhe1237
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ʼAuhelawa is an Austronesian language found in Nuakata Island and the southeastern tip of Normanby Island in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea.^[2] It was spoken by about 1,200 people in 1998, 30% of whom were monolingual in the language.^{[citation needed]}

The literacy rate for first-language speakers is 85%, and is also 85% for second-language users. There are translated Bible portions into the language from 1986–1993.^{[citation needed]}

ʼAuhelawa examples

A: Auge, yauwedo. Haidova u lalau? ('My friend, hello. Where are you going?')

B: Ya lalau oyai. Yagu oya vauvauna ya tudai. Owa haidova u lau? ('I am going to the garden. I dig my new garden. Where did you go?')

A: Ya dobi gogowai yada bada ehebo ya ita. Teina gona sabate mata yana vada vauvauna ya abi. ('I went down to the village to see one of our uncles. Next week I will build his new house.')

B: Yau dova nuwanuwagu yada bada ya hagui. Ebe u dobi u vada abi, u lauma u vaigau ta dobi ta paihowa. ('I also want to help our uncle. When you go down to housebuild, you come and get me and we go down and work.')

A: Ausala. Mata ta itago. ('Good. We will see you.')

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels^[3]
	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

Consonants

Consonants^[3]
		Bilabial		Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		plain	round	Alveolar	Palatal	plain	round	plain	round
Nasal		m	mʷ	n
Stop	voiceless	p	pʷ	t				ʔ	ʔʷ
Stop	voiced	b	bʷ	d		ɡ	ɡʷ
Fricative		β		s				h
Approximant		w		l	j

/k/ occurs only in loanwords.

Writing system

ʼAuhelawa is written in the Latin script. About 85% of the population is literate.^{[citation needed]}

Orthography^[3]
A a	B b	Bw bw	D d	E e	G g	Gw gw	H h	I i	K k	L l	M m	Mw mw
/a/	/b/	/bʷ/	/d/	/ɛ/	/ɡ/	/ɡʷ/	/h/	/i/	/k/	/l/	/m/	/mʷ/
N n	O o	P p	Pw pw	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	Y y	ʼ	ʼW ʼw
/n/	/ɔ/	/p/	/pʷ/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/β/	/ɥ/	/j/	/ʔ/	/ʔʷ/

References

^ ʼAuhelawa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ Lithgow, David (1992). "Language Change on Fergusson and Normanby Islands, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea". In Dutton, Thomas Edward (ed.). Culture Change, Language Change: Case Studies from Melanesia. Pacific Linguistics Series C. Vol. 120. Australian National University. p. 40. doi:10.15144/PL-C120. ISBN 978-0-85883-411-8.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Organized Phonology Data: Auhelawa Language [KUD]". SIL International. 2004.

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[e25-1] ʼAuhelawa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

[2] Lithgow, David (1992). "Language Change on Fergusson and Normanby Islands, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea". In Dutton, Thomas Edward (ed.). Culture Change, Language Change: Case Studies from Melanesia. Pacific Linguistics Series C. Vol. 120. Australian National University. p. 40. doi:10.15144/PL-C120. ISBN 978-0-85883-411-8.

[OPD-3] "Organized Phonology Data: Auhelawa Language [KUD]". SIL International. 2004.

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