Kwomtari language

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title: "Kwomtari language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-sandaun-province", "kwomtari–nai-languages"] description: "Senu River language spoken in Papua New Guinea" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwomtari_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Senu River language spoken in Papua New Guinea ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Kwomtari
states	Papua New Guinea
coordinates
speakers	600
date	1998
ref	e18
familycolor	Papuan
fam1	Senu River
fam2	Kwomtari–Nai
iso3	kwo
glotto	nucl1593
glottorefname	Kwomtari
::

|name=Kwomtari |states=Papua New Guinea |coordinates= |speakers=600 |date=1998 |ref=e18 |familycolor=Papuan |fam1=Senu River |fam2=Kwomtari–Nai |iso3=kwo |glotto=nucl1593 |glottorefname=Kwomtari

Kwomtari is the eponymous language of the Kwomtari family of Papua New Guinea.

Spencer (2008) is a short grammar of Kwomtari. The language has an SOV constituent order and nominative–accusative alignment. Both subjects and objects are marked suffixally on the verb. Verbs are inflected for status (mood) rather than for tense or aspect.

Locations

Ethnologue lists Kwomtari as spoken in six villages in Komtari (Kwomtari) ward (), Amanab Rural LLG, Sandaun Province.

Baron (2007) lists Kwomtari-speaking villages as Mango, Kwomtari, Baiberi, Yenabi, Yau'uri, and Wagroni.

Phonology

::data[format=table title="Consonant phonemes of KwontariDrew, Julia (1998). "Kwontari Phonology Essentials". In Murray Honsberger, Carol Honsberger and Ian Tupper. Kwomtari phonology and grammar essentials. Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea: SIL-PNG Academic Publications. {{ISBN|9980-0-3426-2}}."]

Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Plosive	Nasal	Fricative	Trill	Lateral
::

The phoneme is realized as a voiced bilabial fricative intervocalically and voiceless bilabial fricative elsewhere. The realization of the phoneme is in free variation between a voiced retroflex lateral and a voiced retroflex stop .

::data[format=table title="Vowel phonemes of KwontariDrew (1998)."]

	Front	Central	Back	Close	Lowered Close	Mid	Open-Mid	Open
::

The unusual vowel phonemes and are of intermediate height between cardinal and respectively but without the centralization present in and . They have also been attested in Weri, a Goilalan language of south-east Papua, and certain Dani dialects.

References

References

1. Spencer, Katharine. (2008). "Kwomtari phonology and grammar essentials". SIL-PNG Academic Publications.
2. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". [[SIL International]].
3. United Nations in Papua New Guinea. (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange.
4. Baron, Wietze. (October 2007). "The Kwomtari Phylum".
5. Drew, Julia (1998). "Kwontari Phonology Essentials". In Murray Honsberger, Carol Honsberger and Ian Tupper. Kwomtari phonology and grammar essentials. Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea: SIL-PNG Academic Publications. {{ISBN. 9980-0-3426-2.
6. Foley, William A.. (2018). "The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide". De Gruyter Mouton.
7. Drew (1998).
8. Foley (1986:54)

::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. ::