Yaqay language
Yaqay is a Papuan language spoken in Indonesia by over 10,000 people. It is also called Mapi or Sohur; dialects are Oba-Miwamon, Nambiomon-Mabur, Bapai.
According to Ethnologue, Yaqay is spoken along the south coast of Mappi Regency, along the Obaa River north to the Gandaimu area.
Phonology
The following is the phonology of Yaqay, as defined in Fonologi Bahasa Yakhai.Consonants
- and are both dental consonants, while and are alveolar consonants.
- is a postalveolar consonant while is palatal.
- seems to be an allophone of found before velar consonants, like in the word yanggo .
- The letter 'k' is only found at the beginning of words or at the end of syllables. At the beginning of a word, it's pronounced like , while at the end of syllables, it's pronounced, for example, in the word kerak, meaning 'walking'.
- , represented by kh, is pronounced like in some words, for example, khayafo, meaning 'spear'.
- is pronounced like in some words, for example, kah, meaning 'smelling'.
- The original source makes it unclear whether is the voiceless glottal fricatives or a voiced glottal stop, but it is most likely the voiceless glottal fricative.
Consonant distribution
- 'Y' means that the consonant on the left of the row occurs in the word position at the top of the column. For instance, this section of the table:
- means that the consonant can be found at the beginning and center of a word, but not at the end of one.
Vowels
- and are sometimes considered to be the same phoneme as and respectively, while others consider them as separate phonemes that are in free variation.
Vowel distribution
- A pattern can be seen here wherein front vowels can all only occur at the beginning of syllables, while the back vowels can only occur at the ends of syllables.
Syllable structure
Maximum syllable structure: CVNC, as in the word, xobandede, meaning 'squat'.
Minimum syllable structure: CV, as in the word, xa, meaning, 'hole'.