Terei
Buin
RegionBougainville
Native speakers
27,000 (2003)[1]
South Bougainville
  • Buinic
    • Buin
      • Terei
Language codes
ISO 639-3buo
Glottologtere1278

Terei or Buin, also known as Telei, Rugara, is the most populous Papuan language spoken to the east of New Guinea. There are about 27,000 speakers in the Buin District of Bougainville Province, Papua New Guinea.

Phonology

The phonology of the Buin language:[2]

Consonant sounds
Labial Alveolar Velar
Plosive p t k g
Nasal m n ŋ
Liquid ɾ (l)

The /ɡ/ sound does not occur word-initially and is often fricativised as [ɣ]. The phoneme /ɾ/ following an /n/ is pronounced as [d], and also occurs as [l] for an allophonic variant. When a /t/ sound occurs before an /i/, it is always pronounced as [tsi], and when occurring before a /u/ or /a/, it may be realized as [tsu] or [tsa] depending on the dialect.

Vowel sounds
Front Back
High iu
Mid eo
Low a

References

  1. Terei at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Laycock, (2003). Pacific Linguistics.


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