Abstract
This paper provides a phonetic description of Ndumbea, one of the indigenous Austronesian languages of the southernmost part of New Caledonia, a French Overseas Territory in the South Pacific. Ndumbea, which is spoken by at most two to three hundred speakers, possesses a number of phonological and phonetic contrasts that are atypical among Austronesian languages. Ndumbea is one of relatively few Austronesian languages that are tonal; it also has a larger inventory of vowels than many other Austronesian languages. The focus of this paper is the three-way place contrast between coronal stops, a relative rarity not only among Austronesian languages, but also among other languages of the world. The three places in the coronal area are shown to be distinguished from one another in terms of both their articulatory and acoustic realization. However, the relationship between these articulatory and acoustic properties is rather atypical from a cross-linguistic standpoint. In addition to the discussion of the coronal contrast, other phonetic aspects of the Ndumbea consonant and vowel systems are also considered.
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