Organised Phonology Data

Enga Language [ENQ]

Enga Province
Trans New Guinea Phylum; East New Guinea Highlands Stock; West-Central (Engan) Family; Enga
Subfamily
Population census: 110,000 (1981)
Major villages: Luth.
Linguistic work done by:
Data checked by:

Phonemic and Orthographic Inventory

a
A

p
b,mb
B

d
d,nd e
D

e
e
E

g,ng i
G

i
I
I

dz k
j,nj k
J K

l
L

m n
ly m n
Ly M N

o
ny fl o
Ny O

p
p
P

s
s
S

t
t
T

u
u
U

w j
w y
W Y

Consonants
Bilab

LabDen Dental

Alveo

Plosive

Nasal

Postalv

Retro

Palatal

Velar

Uvular

Trill

Tap/Flap

Fricative
Lateral
Fricative
Approx

Lateral
Approx

Ejective
Stop
Implos

/b/

voiced prenasalized bilabial plosive

/d/

voiced prenasalized alveolar plosive

//

voiced prenasalised velar plosive

/dz/

voiced prenasalised affricate

/w/

voiced labial-velar approximant

paangi
apa

'thight'
'father'

b baak
mb

'alone'
'only one'

Pharyn

Glottal

Enga OPD

Printed: August 20, 2004

Page 2

m ma
m

'taro'
'over there'

sil
ms

'like'
'banana'

walak
awa

'arrow'
'sugar cane'

kalpu
akitpa

'peanuts'
'how many'

tna
lti

'snare'
'grass spec.'

glu
angitki

'spider'
'alike'

d dn
lund

'down there'
'pig grease'

flfla
palfla

'baby'
'plank'

'tree spec.'
'dirt'

nyakma
apiny

'you plur., they'

'those'

dz jing
konja

'fruit,nut'
'jam'

yla
ky

'shame'
'bird'

'rain'
'ear'

lyka
klya

'tree spec.'
'handsome'

nka
kun

laka
kal

Vowels
i

t
kgi
lyndi
gi

'tree, wood'
'hand, arm'
'bird spec.'
'time'

ulumba
kt
lpu
uan

'bird spec.'
'grass skirt'
'leaf'
'fater-in-law'

da
nel
kek
poeeg

'woman'
'insect spec.'
'tongue'
'washes'

okylo
kne
ngo
ko

'frog'
'red'
'the,that'
'bad, evil'

pu
sk
mba
kaing

'rain'
'green'
'tree oil'
'light'

Suprasegmentals (tone, stress, length)

Tone is phonemic.
mb ping 'to scatter'

ambno 'bean'

te 'pig exchange'

amb ping 'to be ashamed'

amban 'cordyline'

te 'ant'

Enga OPD

Printed: August 20, 2004

Page 3

Syllable Patterns
V

.a 'gourd'

ku..ka 'yesterday'

ku.ke.a 'swamp'

CV

da. 'here'

ka.ng.pu 'insect'

a.nd.nda 'empty'

Conventions: Phonological
/k/ as a rule is fricativized between low and back vowels.
/t/ is often pronounced [r] intervocalically.
/s/ is pronounced [ts] word initially.
All final vowels are devoiced.

Conventions: Orthographic
The words marked with a high tone mark < > on their first syllable are tonetically [ ], those with a tone mark
on the final syllable only [ ], and those with a tone mark on the last two syllables [ ].
Prenasalized phonemes [b d dz] are written <b d g dz > word initially and < mb nd ng nj > word
medially.
<ly > and <ny> are digraphs for one sound, but <py>, <ky>,<my>,<ty>, < pw>, <kw> etc. are interpreted as
consonant plus vowel, the vowel being a non-syllabic [i] or [u].

Transcription of a recorded passage

< Aklimipi ndamepi wanmepi dpame men dko. Men dko andkele. Nambapi nambany kaiminngipi
nima men lng minngima.>

The man and the woman and the boy are hitting the pig. That pig is somewhat large. My brothers and I own a
lot of pigs.

Bibliography
Lang, Adrianne. 1975. 'The semantics of classificatory verbs in Enga.' Pacific Linguistics B 39.
___. 1973. 'Enga dictionary with English Index.' Pacific Linguistics C 20.
Lang, Ranier. 1973. 'Grammatical Sketch.' In A.Lang 1973.
Larson, James. 1967. 'Enga language speaking manual.' 2 vols. NGLM-manuscript.
Laycock, D.C. n.d. 'Notes on Enga suprasegmental phonemes.' Manuscript.