Iha language

This article is about a Papuan language. For the Austronesian language spoken in the Moluccas, see Saparua language.

Iha
Matta, Kapaur
Native to	Indonesia
Region	West Papua (Bomberai Peninsula)
Native speakers	(5,500 cited 1987) [1]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea West Trans–New Guinea West Bomberai Mbaham–Iha Iha
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ihp
Glottolog	ihaa1241

Pidgin Iha
Native to	Indonesia
Region	West Papua (Bomberai Peninsula)
Native speakers	None
Language family	Iha-based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ihb
Glottolog	ihab1241
ELP	Iha Based Pidgin

Iha (Matta, Kapaur) is a Papuan language spoken by the Mbaham-Matta people (primarily Matta) of the Bomberai Peninsula in West Papua Province, Indonesia. It is the basis of a pidgin used as the local trade language. ^[2]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio- dorsal	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t̪	( t͡ʃ )		q͡p	q
	voiced	( b )	d̪	( d͡ʒ )			ɢ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ	ᵑᵐɡ͡b
Fricative	voiceless	( f )	s					h
	voiced	β
Rhotic			ɾ
Lateral			l
Semivowel				j		w

• Marginal phonemes are in parentheses. ^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

• /i a/ can also have allophones [ɪ ə]. ^[4]

Pronouns

Flassy and Animung (1992) list the following pronouns for Iha. ^[4]

		singular	plural
1st person	exclusive	on	mbi
	inclusive		in
2nd person		ko	ki
3rd person		mi	wat/mi

References

1. Iha at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Iha-Based Pidgin at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
3. Al-Gariri, Husam Saeed Salem Al-Gariri (2022). Prenasalized Stops in Iha: an acoustic analysis of allophonic variation. University of Amsterdam.
4. Flassy, Don A.L. and Lisidius Animung. 1992. Struktur Bahasa Iha. Jakarta: Pusat Bahasa dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan Nasional.