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Lihir

Lihir is an Austronesian language spoken in Papua New Guinea.

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Lihir · 3.2°S 152.6°E

The Lihir language (Lir) is an Austronesian language spoken in the Lihir island group, in New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea. It is notable for having five levels of grammatical number: singular, dual, trial, paucal and plural. It is questionable whether the trial is indeed trial or whether it is paucal, leaving there being a paucal and a greater paucal. Either way, this is the highest number of levels of grammatical number in any language. This distinction appears in both independent pronouns and possessor suffixes. There is some variation in pronunciation and orthography between the main island Niolam, and some of the smaller islands in the group.

From Wikipedia · Lihir language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Words in Lihir

MeaningWordRomanization
personziktun*
nameiasia*
eyemata*
eartena*
noseisio*
toothweniez*
tonguekalame*
handlima*
blooddala*
bonetio*
skinkulie*
breastsus*
liveryet*
waterto*
fireieh*
starkemkem*
stoneot*
leafpekelolo*
nightlan*
dogpol*
fishmazien*
louseut*
onedatol*
twoalaklio*
Iyo*
wedo*
drinkyun*
seetiar*
hearlan*
diemiat*

* in the simplified ASJP transcription

Most similar languages

Vocabulary

Grammar

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

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Glottolog · lihi1237 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · lih