Kómnzo language

Komnzo (also Kómnzo, Kómnjo, Kamundjo) is a Yam language of Papua New Guinea spoken by 150–250 people in the village of Rouku (8.701793°S 141.598485°E / -8.701793; 141.598485 (Rouku)) and the town of Morehead.^[1]

Komnzo
Rouku
Region	Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	150–250 (2018)[1]
Language family	Yam Tonda Upper Morehead Komnzo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	komn1238
ELP	Komnzo
Komnzo Show map of Papua New Guinea Komnzo Show map of Oceania
Coordinates: 8.701793°S 141.598485°E / -8.701793; 141.598485 (Rouku)

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant inventory comprises 18 phonemes (ᵐb, t, ⁿd, k, ᵑɡ, kʷ, ᵑɡʷ, m, n, ŋ, ɸ, ʦ, ⁿʣ, ð, s, r, w, j). The system consists of a series of obstruents (oral and prenasalized plosives and affricates), fricatives, nasals and semivowels. Consonants occurring only in loanwords are: b, g, d, l.^[1]

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar
Oral obstruent		t̪~t ⟨t⟩		ts ⟨z⟩		k ⟨k⟩	kʷ ⟨kw⟩
Prenasal obstruent	ᵐb ⟨b⟩		ⁿd ⟨d⟩	ⁿdz ⟨nz⟩		ᵑɡ ⟨g⟩	ᵑɡʷ ⟨gw⟩
Fricative	ɸ ⟨f⟩	ð ⟨th⟩	s ⟨s⟩
Nasal	m ⟨m⟩		n ⟨n⟩			ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩
Lateral			r~ɾ ⟨r⟩
Semivowels					j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩

Vowels

The vowel inventory consists of eight phonemes (i, e, æ, a, ʏ, ø, u, o) and one epenthetic vowel (ə̆).^[1]

	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i ⟨i⟩	y ⟨ü⟩		u ⟨u⟩
Mid	e ⟨e⟩	œ ⟨ö⟩	ə̆ ⟨é⟩	o ⟨o⟩
Near-open	æ ⟨ä⟩
Open			a ⟨a⟩

Epenthesis

Komnzo phonology exhibits widespread vowel epenthesis. The epenthetic vowel is usually a short schwa (ə̆), sometimes a short high front or high back vowel. Many syllables and many words in Komnzo lack a specified vowel, e.g. mnz 'house' [mə̆nts] or gwth 'nest' [ᵑɡʷə̆θ].

Orthography

In the tables above, graphemes are indicated by <angle brackets>. The current orthography of Komnzo does not represent the epenthetic vowel because it can be predicted by the rules of syllabification. This leads to orthographic representations which untrained users might find hard to pronounce, for example: zfth 'reason' is pronounced [tsə̆ɸə̆θ] or fta '36' is pronounced [ɸə̆ta].

Numeral system

Komnzo number words use a senary numeral system, with the following powers: nibo (6¹), fta (6²), taruba (6³), damno (6⁴), wärämäkä (6⁵) and wi (6⁶). Counting in larger quantities is restricted to a ritualized counting procedure, whereby yam tubers are counted publicly for exchange feasts. For everyday counting above six, English numerals are borrowed.

Komnzo	English	value
näbi	‘one’	1
eda ~ yda	‘two’	2
etha ~ ytho	‘three’	3
asar	‘four’	4
tabuthui	‘five’	5
nibo	‘six’	6
nibo a näbi	'seven'	6 and 1
nibo a eda	'eight'	6 and 2
fta	‘36’	62
taruba	‘216’	63
damno	‘1296’	64
wärämäkä	‘7776’	65
wi	'46656'	66