Tanggu language

Tanggu
Tanggu
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Madang Province
Native speakers	(3,000 cited 1991)
Language family	Ramu Ramu proper Tamolan–Ataitan Ataitan Tanggu; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tgu
Glottolog	tang1355
ELP	Tangu

Last updated January 02, 2026

Tanggu (Tangu, Tanggum) is a Ramu language of Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

Consonants^[2]
	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Dorsal
Plosive	p	t		k
Prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿdʒ	ᵑg
Fricative	β	s z		ʁ
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Approximant		r	j

/m/ can occur syllabically [m̩] word-initially.
/ʁ/ is heard as [ɣ] before /i/.
/ⁿdʒ/ is pronounced [z~j] in the Wagi dialect.

Vowels^[2]
	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

/ɨ/ almost always occurs only in unstressed syllables and diphthongs.

Additionally, the following diphthongs have been observed: /ia/, /ɨa/, /ai/, /ui/, /au/, /ua/. /ai/ is realised as [æ] word-finally.

References

↑ Tanggu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
1 2 Lotterman, Johan (1992). Tanggu Organised Phonology Data. SIL International.

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

[opd-2] 1 2 Lotterman, Johan (1992). Tanggu Organised Phonology Data. SIL International.

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