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Cèmuhî (Camuhi, Camuki, Tyamuhi, Wagap) is an Oceanic language spoken on the island of New Caledonia, in the area of Poindimié, Koné, and Touho. The language has approximately 3,300 speakers and is considered a regional language of France.

Cèmuhî
Wagap
Native to	New Caledonia
Region	Touho: east coast from Congouma to Wagap and inland valleys
Native speakers	2,600 (2009)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic New Caledonian – Loyalties New Caledonian Northern New Caledonian Central Northern Cèmuhî
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cam
Glottolog	cemu1238

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of Cèmuhî (after Rivierre 1980) are shown in the table below.

Consonant phonemes

	Labiovelar		Labial		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Laryngeal
Voiceless stop	pʷ		p		t		c		k
Prenasalized stop	ᵐbʷ		ᵐb		ⁿd		ᶮɟ		ᵑg
Nasal	mʷ h̃ʷ		m		n		ɲ		ŋ		h̃
Continuant	w				(r) l						(h)

Rivierre (1980) analyzes the contrasts of Cèmuhî along three emic categories: nasal, semi-nasal (i.e. prenasalized), and oral consonants.

Vowels

The chart below shows Cèmuhî vowels, all of which can contrast in both length and nasality.[2]

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

Tone

Like its neighbour Paicî, Cèmuhî is one of the few Austronesian languages which have developed contrastive tone. However, unlike other New Caledonian tonal languages, Cèmuhî has three tonal registers: high, mid, and low tones.[3]

See also

• Northern New Caledonian languages

Notes

Bibliography

• Rivierre, Jean-Claude [fr] (1972). Les Tons de la langue de Touho (Nouvelle-Calédonie) : Etude diachronique. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 1972, vol.67, n°1, p. 301-316.
• Rivierre, Jean-Claude (1980). La Langue de Touho : Phonologie et grammaire du Cèmuhî (Nouvelle-Calédonie). Paris: Société d'Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France. p. 363.
• Rivierre, Jean-Claude (1983). Dictionnaire cèmuhî – français, suivi d'un lexique français – cèmuhî. Paris: Société d'Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France. p. 375.

External links

• Audio recordings in the Cèmuhî language, in open access, by Jean-Claude Rivierre (source: Pangloss Collection).

На других языках

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- [en] Cèmuhî language

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[fr] Cèmuhî

Le cèmuhî (ou camuki) est une langue austronésienne qui fait partie des langues kanak, parlée par environ 3 300 locuteurs dans les communes de Touho, Koné et Poindimié (Province Nord) dans l’aire coutumière Paici-Camuki. C’est une langue régionale de France.

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