Huli is a Tari language spoken by the Huli people of the Hela Province of Papua New Guinea. It has a pentadecimal (base-15) numeral system: ngui means 15, ngui ki means 15×2 = 30, and ngui ngui means 15×15 = 225.
| Huli | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Region | Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea |
| Ethnicity | Huli people |
Native speakers | 150,000 (2011)[1] |
Trans-New Guinea?
| |
| Latin script (Huli alphabet) Huli Braille | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | hui |
| Glottolog | huli1244 |
Huli has a pandanus language called tayenda tu ha illili (bush divide taboo) used for collecting karuka nuts (anga) as well as hunting or traveling.[2] Tayenda is used to evade malevolent bush spirits.[2] The grammar for Tayenda is nearly identical to normal Huli, but the vocabulary is changed, often borrowing words from Duna but with changed meanings.[2]
Phonology
editHuli has a syllable structure of (C)V.
Vowels
edit| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i ĩ | u ũ |
| Mid | e ẽ | o õ |
| Open | ɑ ɑ̃ | |
/ɑ/ is pronounced more fronted as [æ] before /r/ and /ʝ/.[3]
Vowel nasality is phonemic in the language. Vowels can also carry three phonemic tones; high-falling, mid-level, and low-rising.
Consonants
edit| Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | |||
| voiced | b | d | g | ||||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ||||
| Fricative | ʝ | h | |||||
| Approximant | w | ɭ | |||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
Stops /p t k/ can become aspirated as [pʰ tʰ kʰ].
Many speakers pronounce /t/ as [s] before /i/.
/d/ is realized as voiceless as [d̥] when occurring word-initially, and is palatalized as [dʲ] between /i/ and a word-final /ɑ/.
/r/ only occurs word-medially.
/b ɡ/ can be phonetically realized as fricatives intervocalically as [β ɣ].
References
edit- ^ Huli at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ a b c Goldman, Laurence (1983). "Talking about talk". Talk Never Dies: The Language of Huli Disputes. London and New York: Tavistock Publications. pp. 254–257. ISBN 978-0422782104. OCLC 993340993.
- ^ Organised Phonology Data: Huli Language [HUI] Southern Highlands Province (PDF). 1992. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
- Lomas, Gabe (1988). The Huli language of Papua New Guinea. PhD Thesis, Macquarie University.
External links
edit- Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Huli on New Guinea World
- Huli counting system Archived 2007-04-24 at the Wayback Machine
- Huli phonology
- "Counting and number in Huli", Brian Cheetam. Papua New Guinea Journal of Education[dead link]