Language
Biritai (Biri) is a Lakes Plain language of Papua, Indonesia . It is named after Biri village in East Central Mambermano District, Mamberamo Raya Regency .[ 2]
Phonology
The following inventory is taken from Donohue (2017),[ 3] with a very small consonant inventory typical of the Lakes Plain languages.
Consonants
In an earlier paper co-authored by Donohue,[ 4] the approximants /j w/ are also included as phonemes. The authors note that Biritai is typologically unusual for missing series of velar, nasal and liquid consonants.
Vowels
Tone
Biritai is tonal.[citation needed ]
References
^ Biritai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Indonesia languages" . Ethnologue : Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International .
^ Donohue, Mark. (2017) "Introduction to Typology 4: investigating phonological typology ". Living Tongues Institute, LSA Institute Kentucky, 2017 July 19.
^ Ross, Bill; Donohue, Mark (2011). "The many origins of diversity and complexity in phonology" (PDF) . Linguistic Typology (15): 251–266.