Rao language

Rao
Rao Breri
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	western Madang Province
Native speakers	(6,000 cited 1992) [1]
Language family	Ramu Ramu proper Annaberg Rao
Dialects	Li’o Ndramini’o
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rao
Glottolog	raoo1244
ELP	Rao

Rao is a Ramu language of western Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. In older literature it was called Annaberg.

Phonology

Consonants ^[2]

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b	t d	tʃ dʒ	k g	ʔ
Prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑg
Fricative	f v	s z			( h )
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Approximant	w	r	j

• /w/ is often heard as [β] word-initially and intervocalically.
• /f/ has only been found word-initially.
• /h/ is very rare and may be an allophone of /g/.
• /r/ can also be realised as [l].

Vowels ^[2]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

Additionally, the following diphthongs have been observed: /ia/, /ai/, /ea/.

Stress falls on the first syllable with a /ʔ/ in coda position. Otherwise, stress is fixed on the first syllable. ^[2]

References

1. Rao at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Stanhope, John M. (2004). Rao Organised Phonology Data. SIL International.