Molima language

Molima
Salakahadi
Fagululu
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Fergusson Island, Milne Bay Province
Native speakers	(4,000 cited 2000 census) [1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic Papuan Tip Nuclear Papuan Tip North Papuan Mainland – D'Entrecasteaux Dobu–Duau Molima
Dialects	Tola’ai Ai’alu Tosila’ai
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mox
Glottolog	moli1248

Molima is an Austronesian language spoken in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		plain	lab.			plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Plosive	voiceless			t̪		k	kʷ	ʔ	ʔʷ
	voiced	b	bʷ	d̪		ɡ	ɡʷ
Fricative	voiceless	ɸ	ɸʷ	s				h
	voiced	v			ʝ	ɣ
Nasal		m	mʷ	n̪
Lateral				l
Approximant					( j )	w

• [p] may also occur as an allophone of /ɸ/, or as a result of borrowed words from Dobu, Motu or English.
• /v/ can be weakened as [ʋ] in all environments, in free variation.
• /i/, when preceding a vowel, may also be realized as a semivowel [j]. ^[2]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

References

1. Molima at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Engkvist, Leif & Helena (2002). Organized Phonology Data of Molima Language (Tola'ai dialect).