Molima language

Molima
Molima
Salakahadi
Fagululu
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Fergusson Island, Milne Bay Province
Native speakers	4,000 (2000 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic Papuan Tip Nuclear Papuan Tip North Papuan Mainland – D'Entrecasteaux Dobu–Duau Molima; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Tola’ai; Ai’alu; Tosila’ai;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mox
Glottolog	moli1248

Molima is an Austronesian language spoken in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua New Guinea.

Phonology[edit]

		Labial		Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		plain	lab.	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Plosive	voiceless			t̪		k	kʷ	ʔ	ʔʷ
Plosive	voiced	b	bʷ	d̪		ɡ	ɡʷ
Fricative	voiceless	ɸ	ɸʷ	s				h
Fricative	voiced	v			ʝ	ɣ
Nasal		m	mʷ	n̪
Lateral				l
Approximant					(j)	w

[p] may also occur as an allophone of /ɸ/, or as a result of borrowed words from Dobu, Motu or English.
/v/ can be weakened as [ʋ] in all environments, in free variation.
/i/, when preceding a vowel, may also be realized as a semivowel [j].^[2]

^ Molima at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Engkvist, Leif & Helena (2002). Organized Phonology Data of Molima Language (Tola'ai dialect).

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