# Pouye language

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Pouye (Bouye) is a language spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea, by a thousand people, and growing. It is spoken in the seven villages of Bulawa (3°39′57″S 142°00′52″E﻿ / ﻿3.665801°S 142.014408°E﻿ / -3.665801; 142.014408﻿ (Bulwo)), Kiliauto, Komtin, Maurom (3°40′59″S 141°50′50″E﻿ / ﻿3.683154°S 141.847269°E﻿ / -3.683154; 141.847269﻿ (Maurom)), Wokien (3°41′52″S 141°57′28″E﻿ / ﻿3.697824°S 141.957815°E﻿ / -3.697824; 141.957815﻿ (Wokien)), Wulme, and Yukilau (3°40′42″S 141°55′32″E﻿ / ﻿3.678344°S 141.925477°E﻿ / -3.678344; 141.925477﻿ (Yiklau)), which are mostly located within East Wapei Rural LLG.
A grammar of the Pouye language is published here: https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/62023

## Phonology

This description follows Dede & Reuter (2011).

### Phonemic inventory

Pouye has 12 consonants, of which three have constrastive secondary articulations (labialisation or palatalisation).
Pouye consonant inventory :
| | Bilabial | Alveolar | Alveolar | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Velar |
| | Bilabial | labialised | plain | palatalised | Palatal | labialised | plain |
| Plosive | /p/ | /tʷ/ | /t/ | /tʲ/ | | /kʷ/ | /k/ |
| Nasal | /m/ | | /n/ | | | | |
| Trill | | | /r/ | | | | |
| Approximant | | | /l/ | | /j/ | /w/ | |
A fairly large nine-vowel inventory is also seen:
Pouye vowel inventory :
| | Front | Central | Back |
| Close | /i/ | /ɨ/ | /u/ |
| Near-close | /ɪ/ | | |
| Close-mid | /e/ | | /o/ |
| Open-mid | /ɛ/ | /ə/ | |
| Open | /a/ | | |
In addition there are seven diphthongs /au̯ əu̯ ou̯ ai̯ əi̯ ei̯ ɪi̯/ which act as discrete vowel units.
The trial orthography is as in the IPA except for /tʷ tʲ kʷ j/ which are tw ty kw y and the vowels /ɨ ɪ ɛ ə/ which are i i e a. This causes ambiguity between /i ɨ ɪ/, /e ɛ/ or /a ə/ although the functional load on these contrasts is low.

### Phonotactics

Pouye allows maximally two consonants in a syllable onset and one consonant in the coda. The nucleus may be a single vowel or diphthong, but although CVVC and CCVC syllables are permitted, CCVVC syllables are unattested. Complex onsets may be maximally a plosive plus a trill or approximant, or the sequence /kt/, for instance in /kin.kti/ "small" (no other two-plosive sequences occur).
Stress is generally placed on the penultimate syllable, although exceptions do occur (/wɨlˈou̯k/ "snake") and if the penult is /wɨ/ or /wo/ the stress is pushed leftwards (/⁠ˈka.wo.wi/ "white").

### Morphophonology

Several morphophonemic alternations occur in Pouye, both within phonological words and across word boundaries.

#### Trill-deletion

The nominal object marker -rɨ loses its initial consonant following /r/ or /l/ or a monosyllable ending in /n/:
   /jar-rɨ/ → [jarɨ] who-OBJ "whom"
   /pol-rɨ/ → [polɨ] Paul-OBJ "Paul"
   /wan-rɨ/ → [wanɨ] 1SG-OBJ "me"
Compare /wəlou̯k-rɨ/ → [wəlou̯krɨ] snake-OBJ. Similarly, the locative marker -ru is realised as [u] in fast speech following any plain alveolar consonant (/n l r t/).
   /tɨlpan-ru/ → [tɨlpanu] palm.floor-LOC "on the floor"
   /tau̯ wai̯l-ru/ → [tau̯ wai̯lu] tree tree.keel-LOC "on the tree keel"
   /jɪprar-ru/ → [jɪpraru] chicken-LOC "on the chicken"
   /pɨrɨt-ru/ → [pɨrɨtu] ground-LOC "on the ground"
Compare /ləu̯-ru/ → [ləu̯ru] house-LOC "to the house/village".

#### Vowel epenthesis

When concatenation of morphemes would produce a sequence of two identical plosives, /ɨ/ is inserted between them epenthetically.
   /t-tɪnri-ke-nɨn-a/ → [tɨtInrikenɨn]
   R-revenge-PRF-PAS-awhile
   "Had had revenge"
Likewise /ɨ/ is inserted to prevent the formation of non-permissible consonant sequences, i.e. sequences of three consonants where the last two do not form a valid onset as described above, or two such consonants word-initially.
   /wilau̯k-mta/ → [wilau̯kɨmta] good-INT "great"
   /n-kɨ/ → [nɨkɨ] IMP-get "get it!"
Compare for instance /nam-ki/ → [namki] 1P-ACP "with us", where the sequence /mk/ appears intervocalically and can be syllabified to two distinct syllables without requiring epenthesis.

#### Consonant coalescence

Two identical nasals, trills or laterals (/mm nn rr ll/) degeminate when brought together.
   /t-ətɨn-nɨn/ → [tətɨnɨn] R-sew-PAS "has sewn"
   /t-ɪl-lai̯/ → [tɪlai̯] R-weave-CONT "weaving"
With the imperative prefix n-, epenthesis occurs prior to this rule, meaning that imperatives remain distinct.
   /n-nək/ → [nɨnək] IMP-hold "hold!" *[nək]

#### Approximant epenthesis

Between two vowels at morpheme boundaries, a non-lateral approximant is inserted. Following /i ɨ ɪ e ɛ/, /j/ is inserted, and following /u o ə a/, /w/ is inserted.
   /t-ake-ɨr/ → [takejɨr] R-see-around "look round"
   /ra-lə-atʲɨ/ → [raləwatʲɨ] REP-down-come "come down again"
In exception to this rule, the hortative prefix pa- inserts /l/ before a vowel.
   /pa-i-nɨm/ → [palinɨm] HRT-go-P "let's go" *[pawinɨm]
Note also the exception described below.

#### Vowel deletion

The low vowel /a/ is deleted before /e/ or /ɛ/ over morpheme boundaries.
   /t-ja-ɛj-ɨr-wɨt/ → [tʲejɨrwɨt]
   R-up-COM-with-stand
   "Come up and stand with"

#### Labial-velar approximant deletion

The suffix -wo "only" is reduced to -o in penultimate position, i.e. when followed by another single monosyllabic suffix. This prevents stress shifting leftwards.
   /wan-wo-kʷɨ/ → [waˈnokʷɨ] 1S-only-POS "my/mine only"
Compare /wan-wo/ → [ˈwanwo] 1SG-only "I only" or /kʷ-atu-wo-ke-nɨn/ → [kʷatuwoˈkenɨn] QCK-hang.up-up-PRF-PAS "quickly hung up (sth.) and left", in which cases wo would not be stressed normally anyway.

#### Dissimilation

When the prefixes na- (potential) or ya- (negative) precede the realis prefix t-, and this sequence precedes a morpheme beginning with a plosive, the realis prefix becomes r- via dissimilation of manner with the following plosive.
   /ya-t-patɨ-tamu/ → [yarpatɨtamu]
   NEG-R-twist-break
   "Didn‘t break"

#### Vowel harmony

With compound words, vowel harmony causes the open vowel /a/ in the first element to raise to /ə/ in the second element.
   /mau̯-ləu̯/ → [məu̯ləu̯] bush-house "bush-house"

#### Alveolar plosive epenthesis

The alveolar plosive /t/ is inserted at the end of a word when the following word begins with /m/. If the first word already ends in /t/, then additional epenthesis of /ɨ/ occurs.
   /pa-ki me/ → [pakit me] FCS-TMP say "then said"
   /lot mei̯pɨr-ke/ → [lotɨt mei̯pɨrke] Lot laugh-PRF "Lot laughed"
This and the following rule occur over word boundaries, as opposed to the previous rules which are all word-internal processes.

#### Secondary trill deletion

The trill /r/ is also deleted in fast speech in the word riyɨ "now" when the previous word ends in /n/.
   /ja-t-i-nɨn rijɨ/ → [jatinɨn ͜ ijɨ] NEG-R-go-PAS now "still has not gone"

### Loan word phonology

Pouye has borrowed a number of words from the lingua franca Tok Pisin. In these words the phonemes /b d ɡ v s/ can be retained, e.g. /sevenpela/ "seven" (cf. native /jilɨkalikir/). Morphophonemic rules generally apply to these words, and the trill deletion rule described above extends its environment to following /s/ as well:
   /barnabas-rɨ/ → [barnabasɨ] Barnabas-OBJ "Barnabas"
Note the loan phonemes /b/ and /s/.