M.A. Theses in Linguistics at the University of North Dakota (Abstracts)

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Quigley, Edward C. 2003
Awara Phonology

Awara is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea spoken in the Finisterre Mountain Range. Though it has been mentioned in papers written about the Finisterre- Huon languages and about the Wantoat language (another language in the Wantoat family), the Awara sound system has not been described in depth.

This paper describes the Awara phonemic inventory, autosegmental features, morphophonemic processes, and implications for the Awara orthography. The analysis is presented within the framework of rules-based Generative Phonology.

Interesting aspects of the language shown here are 1) prenasalized voiced stops, 2) complex phonemes /kw/, /ngw/ and /gw/, 3) non-universal morphophonemic processes such as devoicing of consonants intervocalically and voicing of consonants after voiceless stop consonants, and 4) counterfeeding and counterbleeding relationships between various morphophonemic processes.

Download thesis from http://arts-sciences.und.edu/summer-institute-of-linguistics/theses/_files/docs/2003-quigley-edward-c.pdf

This thesis is also available as part of "The Phonology and Verbal System of Awara: A Papuan Language of the Finisterre Range, Papua New Guinea", published by Pacific Linguistics.