Wahgi language
Trans–New Guinea language
title: "Wahgi language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["chimbu–wahgi-languages", "languages-of-western-highlands-province", "languages-of-simbu-province", "languages-of-madang-province", "tonal-languages"] description: "Trans–New Guinea language" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahgi_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Trans–New Guinea language ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Wahgi |
| states | Papua New Guinea |
| region | Western Highlands Province |
| speakers | 86,000 |
| date | 1999 |
| ref | e18 |
| familycolor | Papuan |
| fam1 | Trans–New Guinea |
| fam2 | Chimbu–Wahgi |
| fam3 | Wahgi languages |
| lc1 | wgi |
| ld1 | Mid-Wahgi |
| lc2 | whg |
| ld2 | North Wahgi |
| glotto | nucl1620 |
| glottoname | Nuclear Wahgi |
| glottorefname | Wahgi |
| glotto2 | nort2921 |
| glottoname2 | North Wahgi |
| :: |
| name = Wahgi | nativename = | states = Papua New Guinea | region = Western Highlands Province | speakers = 86,000 | date = 1999 | ref = e18 | familycolor = Papuan | fam1 = Trans–New Guinea | fam2 = Chimbu–Wahgi | fam3 = Wahgi languages | lc1 = wgi | ld1 = Mid-Wahgi | lc2 = whg | ld2 = North Wahgi | glotto = nucl1620 | glottoname = Nuclear Wahgi | glottorefname = Wahgi | glotto2 = nort2921 | glottoname2 = North Wahgi Wahgi is a Trans–New Guinea language of the Chimbu–Wahgi branch spoken by approximately 100,000 people in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Like other Chimbu languages, Wahgi has some unusual lateral consonants.
Phonology
Consonants
::data[format=table title="Wahgi consonantsPhillips 1976"] | Bilabial | (palatalized) dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Nasal | Obstruent | oral | prenasalised | Lateral | Semivowel | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | ~ | | | | | | | | | | | | ~ | | | | | | | | | | | | ~ | | | | | | | | | | | | ~ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::
The dental consonants are "distributed", with closure along a considerable distance of the vocal tract. This presumably means that they are laminal, and that the alveolar consonants are apical. The dental consonants have palatalized allophones in free variation.
The description of the (palatalized) dentals suggest they may be alveolo-palatal or something similar. This is further suggested by transitional vowels triggered by , apparently even by its non-palatalized allophone: 'moon', [sic] 'here'.
The nasal element of the prenasalized consonants is syllabic when not preceded by a vowel, but takes a noncontrastive low tone and is never stressed: 'but', 'we know'. Prenasalized consonants are perceived as single segments word-initially, but as nasal + stop word-medially.
Nasals and semivowels have no notable allophony, apart from the optional palatalization of . The other consonants vary markedly, with most variants being positional: ::data[format=table title="Consonantal allophones"] | word-initial | word-medial | word-final | word-initial, phrase-medial | word-final, phrase-medial | /p/ | /mb/ | /s/ | /nz/ | /t/ | /nd/ | /k/ | /ng/ | /ɬ̪/ | /ɺ/ | /ʟ/ | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | /uˈi/}} or (with stress on the or ): = , = , etc. | p~b | pʰ~ɸ | | [(m)pᵊ]}} an option before an obstruent | | | | | | | | | | | | | ᵐp~ᵐb | mp~mb | mpʰ~mɸ | | mpʰ~mɸ~mpᵊ | | | | | | | | | | | | | t̪~t̪s̪~s̪~t̪ɕ~ɕ s̪ʷ | t̪s̪~s̪~t̪ɕ~ɕ t̪ | t̪s̪~s̪~t̪ɕ~ɕ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ⁿd̪~ⁿd̪z̪~ⁿd̪ʑ~ⁿt̪~ⁿt̪s̪~ⁿt̪ɕ | n̪d̪~n̪d̪z̪~n̪d̪ʑ~n̪t̪~n̪t̪s̪~n̪t̪ɕ | n̪t̪~n̪t̪s̪~n̪t̪ɕ~n̪s̪~n̪ɕ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | t~d tʷ | ɾ~r | r̥ | t~d ɾ~r | ɾ~r~r̥ t̚ | | | | | | | | | | | | | ⁿt~ⁿd | nt~nd | ntʰ | | ntʰ~ntᵊ | | | | | | | | | | | | | k~ɡ kʷ~ɡʷ | k~ɡ ŋ (?) | kʰ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ᵑk~ᵑɡ ᵑɡʷ | ŋk~ŋɡ | (does not occur) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | (do not occur) | ɬ̪ˢ̪~ɬ̪~ɮ̪ | ɬ̪ˢ̪~ɬ̪ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ɺ̥~ɺ̥~ɺ̥tʰ~ɺ̥tr̥~ɺ̥r̥~ɺ~ɺ̥d | ɺ̥~ɺ̥~ɺ̥tʰ~ɺ̥tr̥~ɺ̥r̥ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ʟ~kʟ~ʟ̝~ɢ̆ | ʟ~kʟ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::
The southern Kuma dialect has these three laterals, though the alveolar is rather uncommon. (The northern Danga dialect has two laterals, dental fricative and alveolar flap.) The dental and velar laterals assimilate to or before dental and alveolar consonants; the alveolar only to before alveolar consonants. In locational forms with a suffix beginning with /t/, the /t/ is elided following the lateral, so that on the surface Wahgi distinguishes dental vs alveolar lateral fricatives and alveolar lateral fricatives vs flaps.
Vowels
::data[format=table title="Wahgi vowels"]
| Front | Central | Back | Close | Near-close | Mid | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
: appears as in all positions except before /k/ and /p/, where it is . In medial position it is in occasional free variation with . : appears as in all positions except before nasals, where it is . Word-finally it is in free variation with . : is reduced to labialization () between and stressed or .
All vowels neutralize to in final unstressed closed syllables (disregarding subsequent "clitics").
In rapid speech, unstressed elide between stressed syllables. For example, in rapid speech is pronounced .
Tone and stress
Wahgi appears to have three word tones rather than phonemic tone on each syllable. At least one syllable will have a phonetic high tone, with the resulting patterns of high, rising and falling on words of one or two syllables, and peaking, rising and falling on words of three to five syllables. Stress also appears to be contrastive, but analysis is difficult.
On both monosyllabic and disyllabic words, the three tones are realized as high, rising and falling: [HH], [LH] and [HL]. An analysis of two phonemic syllable tones, HIGH and LOW, is complicated by the appearance of all three word tones on monosyllables with final occlusive codas (and phonetically short vowels).
In polysyllabic words,
- HIGH (H) is phonetically high, optionally extra high on stressed syllables.
- LOW (L) is phonetically falling on unstressed syllables at the end of a prosodic phrase. It is phonetically mid between a high tone and another low tone (i.e. the sequence /HLL/ is [HML] and /LLH/ is [LMH]). It is phonetically low elsewhere.
On trisyllables, the patterns LHL, HLL, and LLH are attested. On tetrasyllables are LLHL, LLLH, and LHHL (that is, LMHL, LLMH, LHHL). On pentasyllables, only two patterns have been found, LLHHH and LLHHL (that is, LMHHH and LMHHL).
Words with six to nine syllables are only attested with a single pattern, a peaking tone (LHL) on the first three syllables followed by a falling tone (HL) stretched out over the remaining syllables. For words of six syllables, this is realized as LHLHLL (phonetically LHLHML); for seven, LHLHLLL; for eight, LHLHHLLL; for nine LHLHHLLLL. In each case, the second syllable (the first high tone) is also stressed, and it is not clear if these are actually double-peaking tones or single peaking tones with preceding stress. Regardless, there does not appear to be any phonemic distinction.
Phonotactics
The maximal syllable in Wahgi is CVCC; the minimal syllable is V, which may be any vowel but . Any consonant may occur in the onset except the three laterals. Any consonant may occur in the coda except the semivowels and /ng/. With a coda consonant cluster, the first consonant may only be (the two common laterals) and the second may only be .
A word may be anywhere from one to nine syllables long. A monosyllabic word may be any type of syllable but V and maybe CV. (Phonetic length and perhaps tone distribution suggests that words transcribed as CV monosyllables may actually be CVV with identical vowels.) Beside the syllable-onset and -coda restrictions, may not occur word-initially and may not occur word-finally.
Observed vowel clusters within words are . In some cases (such as ) these sequences reduce across morpheme boundaries, and stress seems to play a role in vowel reduction. It may be that some of the difficulties in analyzing stress may be a conflation of vowel sequences across syllables with sequences in single heavy (bimoraic CVV) syllables.
Observed consonant clusters within words are those allowed as syllable codas, , plus .
In rapid speech, the following additional combinations are known: .
Evolution
Below are some reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea proposed by Pawley (2012), drawn from Ramsey (1975):
::data[format=table]
| proto-Trans-New Guinea | Middle Wahgi |
|---|---|
| *ma- ‘NEG clitic’ | ma ‘no!’ |
| *ma(n,k,L)[a] ‘ground’ | maɫ |
| *maŋgV ‘compact round object’ | muŋ ‘fruit, nut, lump’ |
| *mo(k,ŋg)Vm ‘joint’ | mokum, mokem ‘knuckle, joint’ |
| *mundun-maŋgV ‘heart’ | mund-muŋ |
| *mV ‘taro’ | mi |
| *mV(k,ŋ)V[C] + t(e,i)- ‘vomit’ | mek (si-) ‘vomit’, mek ‘vomitus’ |
| *am(a,i) ‘mother’ | ama |
| *amu ‘breast’ | am |
| *niman ‘louse’ | numan |
| *n(o,u)man ‘mind, soul’ | numan ‘thought, mind, will’ |
| *kumV- ‘die’ | kumb- ‘(of fire) die’ |
| *mo(k,ŋg)Vm ‘joint’ | mokum, mokem, (angeɫ) mokem ‘knuckle, joint’ |
| *na- ‘eat’ | no- |
| *niman ‘louse’ | numan |
| *n(o,u)man ‘mind, soul’ | numan ‘thought, mind, will’ |
| *mundun ‘internal organs’ | (?) mundun mo- ‘be pot-bellied’ |
| *niman ‘louse’ | numan |
| *n(o,u)man ‘mind, soul’ | numan |
| *mundu[n]-maŋgV ‘heart’ | mund-muŋ |
| *ŋaŋ[a] ‘baby’ | ŋaŋ ‘small male child’ |
| *ambi ‘man’ | (?) amb ‘woman’, ambi- ‘wife’ |
| *imbi ‘name’ | embe(m) |
| *pu- ‘go’ | pu |
| *apa ‘father’ | apa- ‘maternal uncle’ |
| *mund-mangV ‘heart’ | mund-mung |
| *tVk- ‘cut, cut off’ | tuk- ‘chop’ |
| *maŋgV ‘compact round object’ | mungum ‘kidney’ |
| *maŋgV ‘compact round object’ | muŋ ‘fruit, nut, lump’ |
| *mundu[n]-maŋgV ‘heart’ | mund-muŋ |
| *kakV- ‘carry on shoulder’ | (?) kau- ‘carry on head or shoulder’ |
| *tVk- ‘cut, cut off’ | tuk- ‘chop’ |
| *muk ‘blue’ | muk |
| *mV(k,ŋ)V[C] + t(e,i)- ‘vomit’ | mek (si-), mek ‘vomitus’ |
| *ma(n,k,l)[a] ‘ground’ | maɫ ‘ground, soil, world’ |
| *nok ‘water’ | noɫ |
| *ŋaŋ[a] ‘baby’ | ŋaɫ ‘small baby’, ŋaŋa ‘male child’ |
| *-i(t,l) ‘2DL verbal suffix’ | -iɫ |
| :: |
To support his proto-Trans-New Guinea reconstructions, Pawley (2012) also cites probable reflexes in the Apali, Kalam, Kâte, Selepet, Binandere, Katei, Kiwai, Telefol, and Asmat languages.
Semantics
Colors
Middle Wahgi distinguishes 14 color terms (from Evelyn Ramsey 1975):
- kuru ‘white, shades of off-white’
- nganimb ‘black’
- jipiɫ to- ‘be bluish-black’
- numb ‘nearly black; a plant used for dyeing string a dark grey’
- muk ‘true blue’
- manngiɫ ‘blue-green’
- kolnga ‘green; new; alive; raw, not fully cooked’
- balu ‘light brown, rust-coloured’
- bang ‘brown, red, orange, pink’
- galngin ‘brown’
- jilni ‘yellowish brown’
- bulni ‘yellow; yellow dye from a plant’ (overlapping with gi ni- ‘be yellow, bright’ and gispe kerem ‘yellow, yellow-orange’)
Middle Wahgi has three types of contrasting color patterns.
- pepe ‘striped’
- mon punduk pandil ni pa- ‘be spotted, speckled’
- ngingan ni sim ‘variegated colours, mottled’
Time
Middle Wahgi has at least a dozen words for days before or after, going far beyond ‘yesterday’ or ‘tomorrow’ (from Evelyn Ramsey 1975):
- pi, opi ‘today’
- toɫpa ‘tomorrow’
- taɫ ‘day after tomorrow’
- tolnge ‘yesterday’
- tolnge taɫ ‘day before yesterday’
- toi ‘4th day, i. e. 3 days from today’
- amb tupuɫɫ ‘5th day from today’
- yi tupuɫ ‘6th day from today’
- kinwaɫ ‘7th day from today’
- manwaɫ ‘8th day from today’
- moɫwaɫ ‘9th day from today’
- kialwaɫ ‘10th day from today’
Dictionary
The first dictionary of Middle Wahgi was published by Church of the Nazarene medical missionary Evelyn Ramsey in 1975.
References
- Phillips, Donald (1976) Wahgi phonology and morphology. Pacific linguistics B, issue 36
References
- Phillips 1976
- Presumed readings of palatalized allophones {{angbr IPA. tš̪ š̪ ň̪ etc.
- Phillips 1976: 54
- Realized as labial before a vowel sequence {{IPA. /uˈi/ or {{IPA. /uˈɪ/ (with stress on the {{IPA. /i/ or {{IPA. /ɪ/): {{IPA. [ˈpʷi~ˈbʷi], {{IPA. [ˈs̪ʷi], etc.
- {{IPA. [(m)pᵊ] an option before an obstruent
- {{IPA. [t̪] only appears word-medially as the second member of a consonant cluster
- Final {{IPA. [s̪] appears before a following {{IPA. [ɾ, r]
- Following alveolars, velars, nasals (except /nz/) and laterals
- Following vowels, bilabials and sibilants (including /nz/)
- before {{IPA. [n]
- /k/ is labialized not just before {{IPA. /ui/ and {{IPA. /uɪ/, but before /o/ when that /o/ is followed by /n/ or {{IPA. /n̪/ (unless the nasal is then followed by /e/), or by /nd/ or /nz/ regardless of the next vowel, as in {{IPA. /kon/ 'bag' and {{IPA. /konze/ 'ball' but not {{IPA. /kone/ 'place'.
- The text says "{{IPA. /k/ occurs in free variation with {{IPA. /ŋ/ following word-initial vowel." It is unclear what this is supposed to mean. The illustrative examples show {{IPA. [k~ɡ] in {{IPA. /ˈpàkám/ [ˈpàkám, ˈpàɡám] 'forked branch' but only {{IPA. [ŋ] in {{IPA. /ˈmòkínè/ [ˈmòŋínè] 'food', neither of which match the wording for free variation with {{IPA. /ŋ/.
- a "voiceless dental fricative lateral with voiceless [[Grooved fricative. grooved]] dental fricative release"
- A [[velar lateral flap]] {{IPA. [ʟ̆] occurs in Kanite and Melpa, so perhaps the flap here is also lateral.{{OR. (January 2026)
- Monosyllables with falling tone are transcribed with low tone in Phillips 1976.
- Pawley, Andrew. (2012). "How reconstructable is proto Trans New Guinea? Problems, progress, prospects". Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
- Ramsey, Evelyn. 1975. ''Middle-Wahgi Dictionary''. Mt Hagen. + Church of the Nazarene.
- Reay, Marie. (1 March 1977). "REVIEWS". Oceania.
- Gerald H. Anderson. (1999). "Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions". Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
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