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Fore language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fore
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionGoroka District, Eastern Highlands Province
EthnicityFore
Native speakers
30,000 (2000)[1]
Dialects
  • Pamusa
Language codes
ISO 639-3for
Glottologfore1270

Fore or Foré /ˈfɔːr/ FOR-ay[2] is a Kainantu-Goroka language spoken in the Goroka District of Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

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The consonants of Fore are as follows:[3]

Bilabial Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stops Plain p k ʔ
Prenasalized mp n̪t̪~nt ŋk
Nasals m n̪~n
Fricative s̪~s
Approximants w j

All the dental consonants can vary to alveolar, except /t̪/ which is always dental. /p/, /t̪/, and /k/ are pronounced as /b/, /ɾ/, and /g/ between vowels. Velar consonants are labialized after rounded vowels. /j/ is often pronounced as a fricative /ʝ/.

Fore has six vowels:

Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid ʌ
Open

It also has four diphthongs: ae, ao, ai, and au.

Fore has a pitch accent system. Each syllable is either accented or unaccented. Multiple accented syllables can occur in the same word, but they cannot be adjacent to each other.

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References

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  1. ^ Fore at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  3. ^ Graham Scott. 1977. The Fore Language of Papua New Guinea. (Doctoral dissertation, Australian National University; xvi+244pp.)