Naasioi

Naasioi is a South Bougainville language spoken by about 22,000 people in the central mountains and on the southeast coast of Kieta District of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea.

Naasioi is also known as Nasioi, Kieta, Kieta Talk or Aunge. Dialects include: Pirung, Kongara, Orami and Pakia-Sideronsi. It is written with the Latin script, and there is some written material in the language, including a grammar and a translation of the New Testament.

A new alphabet for Naasioi, known as the Naasioi Otomaung Alphabet, was created in the late 1980s and 1990s by Chief Peter Karatapi, the founder and leader of the Otomaung cultural organization.

Naasioi alphabet and pronunciation

Notes

[b] is pronounced [β] word medially expect after [ʔ], and is written v
Word medially after vowels [d] is pronouned [ɾ] and written r
[m̩] occurs before [m] at the beginning of words
[n̩] occurs before [n] and [t] at the beginning of words
[ŋ̩] occurs before [k] at the beginning of words, and is written nk
[n] is pronounced [ŋ] word medially before [k] and word finally, expect when following [ɑi], [ei], [oi], when it’s pronounced [nʲ]. In both instances it is written ng
[s] and [ts] are allophones of [t] and appear word initially and medially before i
The letters j, l and v are used in names from other languages.

Download an alphabet chart for Naasioi (Excel)

Sample text

Nii'koon numpoonge, temu'numpoonge, mintoong nanau nkoaako'nung. Nkoaama tee meu' bono'eeko'nung, nii'nakang navio'koo biikaning kapoo'nanka keempaako'. Mintoong tee ee'nari' nkoaako'nung temu' urikamu'. Mintoonkoo dama'ue parang nkoaako, ookara nari' kareaama. Emu'numpoonge tee nkoaava'. Emu'numpoonge tee nanauna' nkoaamaung. Nii'nakange biikanau bii'karang. Ee'noko nakange biikanau bii'karang. Ampinkoo nna' tee ookara nantoong naipe'ke kante deempariru'nung. Keunu dovange kante deempariru'nung. Ee'noko tee mintoong kante nkoaamaung emu'naa doonkoo.

Translation

Our people, the old timers, used to all make one garden. As they made the garden they would subdivide it and each family would plant its own section. They used to make gardens like this long ago. Around the sides of the garden they used to build fences, all talking at once. Now people don't do that. Now the families all make a garden each. One family will have a garden to itself, and another will have one to itself. This is all because knives and axes have been introduced and they all have them. Thus it is that the families make a garden each nowadays.

Source: Nasioi Organised Phonology Data

Sample videos

Information about Naasioi | Naasioi Otomaung Alphabet

Links

Information about Naasioi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naasioi_language
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/nas
https://www.sil.org/resources/search/language/nas

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page created: 14.12.12 Last modified: 14.12.22

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