Nakai

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

[under construction]

…in the Merauke Regency of Indonesia's Papua province

(Hughes 2009: 4, 11-12.) The term Nakai means “what?”

Wilbrink (2004: 109a-110f) 239+ comparative terms for Nakai

Hughes (2009: 27-37) 239 comparative terms for Nakai of Burunggop

There is no published phonology of Nakai. Based upon comparason to Naki and Tangko, Nakai likely has 10 or 12 consonants and 5 vowels as follows:

As [mb] only occurs initially, and [p] only occurs finally, it would be synchronically reasonable to view them as allophones of a single phoneme, although historically this isn't the case.

Hughes (2009: 28-29) and Wilbrink (2004: 110a) give Nakai pronouns as follows:

Neither Hughes nor Wilbrink give feminine forms or distinguish inclusive from exclusive in the first person plural. Otherwise, these pronouns are identical to those of Naki (q.v. Williamson 2010: 12-13.)

No information has been published about Nakai verbal morphology.