Ewage language

Ewage
Notu
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Oro Province
Native speakers	12,000 (2015)[1]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Binanderean Ewage
Dialects	Ewage-Notu Yega (Gona, Okeina, Okena)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nou
Glottolog	ewag1241

Ewage, also known as Notu, is a Papuan language spoken in the "tail" of Papua New Guinea. Preference for the name depends on the region. Its two dialects are Sose/Sohe (Western Plains Orokaiva) and Ifane/Ihane (Eastern Plains Orokaiva) (Smallhorn 2011:47).

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Plosive	voiceless		t		k
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
Affricate	voiced		dz
	prenasal		ⁿdz
Fricative		ɸ	s		ɣ
Rhotic			ɾ
Approximant		w	(l)	j

• /ᵑɡ/ can be pronounced as [ŋ] when in word-medial position.
• /w/ can be pronounced as [β] when before front vowels /i, ɛ/.
• /ɾ/ can be pronounced as [l] or [ɾ] in free variation in all positions.^[2]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low		a

References

1. Ewage at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Parrington, Doug (1994). Ewage (Notu-Ewage, Notu) Language [NOU] Popondetta – Oro Province. Organised Phonology Data: SIL.

• Smallhorn, Jacinta Mary. 2011. The Binanderean languages of Papua New Guinea: reconstruction and subgrouping. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.