Orowe language

Orowe (ʼÔrôê, Boewe, Neukaledonien) is an Oceanic language of New Caledonia.

Orowe
ʼÔrôê
Region	Bourail, New Caledonia
Native speakers	490 (2009 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic New Caledonian – Loyalties New Caledonian Southern South Southern Wailic Orowe
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bpk
Glottolog	orow1242
ELP	'Ôrôê
Orowe is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Phonology

The phonological inventry in Orowe contains 24 consonants and 16 vowels. There are 10 oral vowels and 6 nasal vowels.

The proposed orthographic symbols for each phoneme in the article are presented in angled brackets < >.

Consonants

		Labial	Labial velarized	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Velar labialized	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	<p> /p/	<pw> /pʷ/		<t> /t/	<tj> /c/	<k> /k/	<kw> /kʷ/	<'> /ʔ/
	voiced	<b> /b/	<bw> /bʷ/		<d> /d/	<dj> /ɟ/	<g> /g/	<gw> /gʷ/
Nasal		<m> /m/	<mw> /mʷ/		<n> /n/	<ny> /ɲ/	<ng> /ŋ/
Fricative				<v> /v/			<gh> /ɣ/
Approximant			<w> /w/			<j> /j/
Liquid					<rr> /r/, <r> /ɾ/

Vowels

Oral vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	<i> /i/	<ü> /y/	<u> /u/
Close mid	<e> /e/	<ù> /ø/	<o> /o/
Open mid	<è> /ɛ/	<ë> /ǝ/	<ò> /ɔ/
Open		<a> /a/

Nasal vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	<î> /ĩ/	<ü̃>/ỹ/	<û> /ũ/
Close mid	<ê> /ẽ/		<ô> /õ/
Open		<â> /ã/

Bibliography

• Tsuji Emiko (2015) '"Ôrôê". In Toshihide Nakayama, Noboru Yoshioka, and Kosei Otsuka, eds.. Grammatical Sketches from the field 2. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. pp.1-31.