Sanio language

Wikipedia

Sanio
Hiowe
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionEast Sepik Province
Native speakers
(1,300 cited 2000 census)[1]
Dialects
  • Saniyo
  • Hiyowe
Language codes
ISO 639-3sny
Glottologsani1270
ELPSaniyo-Hiyewe

Sanio, or more precisely Saniyo-Hiyewe, is a Sepik language of Tunap/Hunstein Rural LLG in East Sepik Province, northern Papua New Guinea. It is also spoken in Telefomin Rural LLG, Sandaun Province.[1]

Dialects

Dialects are:[1][2]

Phonology

Consonants[3]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p t k ʔ '
Fricative ɸ f s h
Nasal m n
Approximant w r j
  • /r/ has the allophone [l] word-initially, which is written with the separate character l.
  • /ʔ/ only appears intervocalically.
Vowels[3]
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid-high e ei o
Mid-low ɛ e
Low a
  • /ɛ/ is pronounced [ei] before /j/. In this case it is written as ei.

Additionally, the following diphthongs can be found: /ai/, /au/, /ou/.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sanio at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  3. 1 2 Lewis, Ron (2002). Saniyo Hiyewe Organised Phonology Data. SIL International.