Ese language

Ese is a language of Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. Although it is also known as Managalasi, which the Summer Institute of Linguistics regards as pejorative possibly because it is a corruption of Hiri Motu phrase meaning the equivalent of "know nothings",^[2] the term "Upper Managalasi" indicates Ömie, another member of Baraic languages.^[3] Dialects are Muaturaina, Chimona, Dea, Akabafa, Nami, Mesari, Averi, Afore, Minjori, Oko, Wakue, Numba, Jimuni, Karira. Perhaps 40% of speakers are monolingual.

Ese
Region	Oro Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	(10,000 cited 2000)[1] 4,000 monolinguals (2001)[1]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Koiarian Baraic Ese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mcq
Glottolog	esee1247

It is spoken in the Kawawoki Mission area of Popondetta.^[1]

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tɕ	k	ʔ
	voiced			dʑ
Fricative		β	s			h
Nasal		m	n
Tap			ɾ

• Allophones of phonemes /β, tɕ, dʑ, ɾ/ exist as [b, ts, ɖʐ, ɺ].

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
Low	a

• A central vowel sound [ʉ] can be heard as a result of /i/ preceding /u/.
• Allophones of /e, a, o/, exist as [ɛ ə ɔ].
• A semivowel sound [w] occurs when /u/ precedes a stressed vowel.^[4]

Further reading

• Parlier, James. 1970. Managalasi sentences. Manuscript. Ukarumpa: SIL-PNG.
• Parlier, Judith and James Parlier. 1981. Managalasi Dictionary. Ukarumpa: SIL-PNG.