Central Asmat language
Papuan language of West New Guinea
title: "Central Asmat language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["asmat-kamoro-languages", "languages-of-western-new-guinea"] description: "Papuan language of West New Guinea" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Asmat_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Papuan language of West New Guinea ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Central Asmat |
| states | Indonesia |
| region | Asmat Regency, South Papua |
| ethnicity | Asmat people |
| speakers | 7,000 |
| date | 1972 |
| ref | e18 |
| speakers2 | 2,000 Yaosakor (1991), perhaps counted above |
| familycolor | Papuan |
| fam1 | Trans–New Guinea |
| fam2 | Asmat–Kamoro |
| fam3 | Asmat |
| iso3 | cns |
| lc1 | asy |
| glotto | cent2247 |
| glottorefname | Central-Yaosakor Asmat |
| :: |
| name = Central Asmat | nativename = | states= Indonesia | region = Asmat Regency, South Papua | ethnicity = Asmat people | speakers = 7,000 | date = 1972 | ref = e18 | speakers2=2,000 Yaosakor (1991), perhaps counted above | familycolor = Papuan | fam1 = Trans–New Guinea | fam2 = Asmat–Kamoro | fam3 = Asmat | iso3 = cns | lc1 = asy | ld1 = Yaosakor Asmat | glotto = cent2247 | glottorefname = Central-Yaosakor Asmat
Central Asmat is a Papuan language of West New Guinea, spoken by the Asmat people.
Dialects
Central Asmat has a number of dialects, which are:
- Keenok
- Sokoni
- Keenakap
- Kawenak (subdialects: Simai, Kainak, Mismam, Mecemup)
Yaosakor Asmat, assigned its own ISO code, is a variety of Central Asmat, not a distinct language.
Phonology
Consonants
::data[format=table]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Nasal | Plosive | Fricative | Rhotic | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
- /p/ can be heard as a fricative when in intervocalic positions, as in the speech of older speakers when preceding /e/.
- /tʃ/ can be heard as a palatalized when in word-final positions following /i/.
- /k/ can be heard as a fricative when following a vowel and preceding a consonant.
- /s/ can be heard as fricatives or among some older speakers.
- /r/ can be heard as a flap in word-medial and word-final positions.
- /ʝ/ can be heard as or in word-initial positions.
- Nasals /m, n/ may fluctuate to voiced stops [, ] in word-initial positions, and as prenasal stops [, ] when in syllable-initial positions.
Vowels
::data[format=table]
| Front | Central | Back | High | Mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
::data[format=table]
| Phoneme | Allophones |
|---|---|
| /i/ | , , |
| /e/ | , , |
| /a/ | , , |
| /o/ | , , |
| /u/ | , |
| :: |
References
References
- (2020). "The Asmat-Muli Languages of Southwestern New Guinea". Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
- Voorhoeve, Clemens L.. (1965). "The Flamingo Bay Dialect of the Asmat Language". The Hague: M.Nijhoff.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::