Iwam language


May River Iwam, or just Iwam, is a language of Papua New Guinea.
It is spoken in Iyomempwi, Mowi, and Premai villages of Tunap-Hunstein Rural LLG in East Sepik Province, and other villages on the May River.

Phonology

Vowels

In non-final positions, ,, and are ,, and, respectively. appears only in nonfinal syllables. When adjacent to nasal consonants, vowels are nasalized; nasalization may also occur when adjacent to word boundaries.

Consonants

and are voiced fricatives when intervocalic and unreleased when final. is a nasal flap word-initially and between vowels. is initially and may otherwise be palatalized. Sequences of any consonant and are neutralized before where an offglide is always heard.

Phonotactics

Bilabial and velar consonants and may be followed by when initial. Other initial clusters include,,,, and and final clusters are or followed by any consonant except for or.

Pronouns

May River Iwam pronouns:

Noun classes

Like the Wogamus languages, May River Iwam has five noun classes:
As shown by the example above for ana ‘hand’, a noun can take on different classes depending on the physical characteristics being emphasized.