In today's article we are going to delve into the topic of Huon Gulf languages, which has captured the attention of experts and the general public. Huon Gulf languages is a topic of great relevance today, since it impacts different aspects of society, economy, politics and culture. Throughout this article we will explore the different aspects of Huon Gulf languages, analyzing its history, its current impact and possible future projections. In addition, we will examine the different perspectives and opinions that exist around Huon Gulf languages, with the aim of providing a broad and complete vision on this topic. Join us in this exploration of Huon Gulf languages and discover everything you need to know about this exciting topic!
| Huon Gulf | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Papua New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | Austronesian |
| Proto-language | Proto-Huon Gulf |
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | huon1245 |
The Huon Gulf languages are Western Oceanic languages spoken primarily in Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. They may form a group of the North New Guinea languages, perhaps within the Ngero–Vitiaz branch of that family.[citation needed]
Unusually for Oceanic languages, two North Huon Gulf languages, Bukawa and Yabem, are tonal. The only other tonal Oceanic languages are found in New Caledonia.
According to Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002), the structure of the family is as follows:
| Proto-Huon Gulf | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of | Huon Gulf languages |
Reconstructed ancestors | |
| Lower-order reconstructions | |
Proto-Huon Gulf was reconstructed by Malcolm Ross in 1988 in Proto-Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia. It is reconstructed on the basis of shared phonological, morphosyntactic and lexicosemantic innovations relative to Proto-Oceanic, such as the pervasive lenition of Proto-Oceanic *p to *v, the acquisition of a final *-c in some words, the idiosyncratic change of Proto-Oceanic *boRok 'pig' to Proto-Huon Gulf *boR, and the loss of all verb-deriving prefixes such as *pa- 'causative', *paRi- 'reciprocal', *ma- 'stative', and *ta- 'intransitive'.
The vowels of Proto-Huon Gulf, according to Ross, are:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | *i | *u | |
| Close-mid | *e | *o | |
| Open | *a |
The consonants of Proto-Huon Gulf, according to Ross, are:
| Labiovelar | Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiced | *b | *d | *ɟ | *g | ||
| voiceless | *p | *t | *c | *k | |||
| Nasal | *mʷ | *m | *n | *ɲ | *ŋ | ||
| Fricative | *v | *s | *ɣ | ||||
| Approximant | *w | *l, *r | *j | *ʀ | |||