Ethnicity Maisin people ISO 639-3 mbq | Native speakers 2,600 (2000 census) Glottolog mais1250 | |
Language family Austronesian or Papuan. | ||
Maisin (or Maisan) is a language of Papua New Guinea with both Austronesian and Papuan features. The Austronesian elements are those of the Nuclear Papuan Tip languages. The Papuan element is Binanderean or Dagan. It is spoken by the Maisin people of Oro Province.
Contents
Consonants
[ŋ] and [kʷ] are not phonemic, but are distinguished in the orthography.
Phonotactics
Syllables can begin and end with up to one consonant each. I.e., English wrong /rɔŋ/ would be an acceptable word, but strength /streŋθ/ would not. Words can only end in either a vowel or [ŋ]. The vowels /u/ and /o/ never occur word-initially. /β/ never occurs before /o/ or /u/.
Writing system
Literacy varies from 20% to 80% in different areas.
References
Maisin language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA