| Nii | |
|---|---|
| Ek Nii | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Western Highlands Province |
Native speakers | (12,000 cited 1991)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nii |
| Glottolog | niii1240 |
Nii is aTrans–New Guinea language of theChimbu–Wahgi branch spoken in the highlands ofPapua New Guinea.
Nii has an unusual number oflateral consonants: a typical alveolar flap,/ɺ/, plus bothdental andvelar lateral fricatives,/ɬ̪/ and/𝼄/, which are voiced between vowels and do not occur in initial position.[2][3]
Note: the source used here is unreliable.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u~ʊ | |
| Near-High | ɪ~ᵻ | ||
| Mid | ɛ | o~ɔ | |
| Open | a | ||
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n̪ | n | ŋ | ||
| Prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿdz | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ||
| Oral | p | s̪ | r | k | ||
| Lateral | ɬ̪ | ɺ | 𝼄 | |||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
| Phoneme | word- initial | inter- vocalic | word- final | utterance- final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /p/ | [p]~[b] | [pᵊ]~[pʰ] | [pʰ] | |
| /s/ | [s̪]~[t̪s̪]~[t̪] | [s̪]~[t̪] | [s̪]~[t̪s̪] | |
| /r/ | [t]~[r](?) (after another word) | [ɾ]~[r] | [r̥] (after a vowel) | |
| /k/ | [k]~[ɡ] | [kᵊ]~[kʰ] | [kʰ] | |
| /mb/ | [mb] | [mb]~[mp] | [mpᵊ]~[mpʰ] | [mpʰ] |
| /ndz/ | [n̪d̪z]~[n̪t̪s]*** | [n̪d̪z]~[n̪t̪s]~[n̪s] | ||
| /nd/ | [nd]~[nt] | [ntᵊ]~[ntʰ] | [ntʰ]~[nt𐞩̥] | |
| /ŋɡ/ | [ŋk]~[ŋɡ] | [ŋkᵊ]~[ŋkʰ] | [ŋkʰ] | |
| /ɬ/ | NA | [ɮ̪]* | [ɬ̪] | |
| /ɺ/ | NA | [ɺ]** | NA | |
| /𝼄/ | NA | [ʟ̝] | [𝼄]~[𝼄ᵊ] | [𝼄] |
The account of the initial allophones of/r/ is confused, and some of the other positions are not completely clear.
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