Sudest language

Sudest
Sudest
Tagula
Region	Tagula Island, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	(2,000 cited 1987)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Papuan Tip Nimoa–Sudest Sudest; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tgo
Glottolog	sude1239

Last updated January 02, 2026

Sudest, also known as Tagula, is an Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea.

Name

The name Sudest is a word meaning 'southeast' in French or Italian.^{[ relevant? ]}

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
		plain	lab.	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	plain	lab.
Plosive	voiceless	p	pʷ	t		k	kʷ
	voiced	b	bʷ	d	ɟ	ɡ	ɡʷ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ᵐbʷ	ⁿd	ᶮɟ	ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
Fricative	voiced	β	βʷ	ð		ɣ	ɣʷ
Fricative	voiceless			s
Nasal		m	mʷ	n	ɲ	ŋ	ŋʷ
Rhotic				r
Lateral				l
Approximant					j		w

/ɣ/ is heard as a glottal [h] before /o/ or /u/.
/ɣʷ/ is heard as [hʷ], in free variation within different dialects.
/β,βʷ/ are originally bilabial, although many speakers under the influence of English pronounce them as labio-dental [v,vʷ].^[2]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

External links

Paradisec has two collections of Arthur Cappell's materials (AC1, AC2) and one collection of Malcolm Ross's (MR1) materials that include Sudest-language materials.

References

↑ Sudest at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
↑ Anderson, Mike; Ross, Malcolm (2002). Sudest. The Oceanic Languages: Richmond: Curzon. pp. 322–346.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

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[e18-1] Sudest at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] Anderson, Mike; Ross, Malcolm (2002). Sudest. The Oceanic Languages: Richmond: Curzon. pp. 322–346.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

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[2]