| Language name: | KWAIO |
| UPSID number: | 2433 |
| Alternate name(s): | |
| Classification: | Austro-Tai, East Malayo-Polynesian |
| This language has | 21 segments |
| Its Frequency index is | 0.398162813 (average percentage of segments; 0.1: many very rare segments; 0.39: average; 0.7: many common segments) |
| The language has these sounds: | t ? mb nd Ng NgW P x xW s m n N NW l w i "e a "o u |
| Comment: | Kwaio is spoken in the central mountains on Malaita, Solomon Islands. Stress is usually penultimate. Labialized velars only contrast before unrounded vowels. /l/ is an alveolar flap before high vowels. /w/ only occurs morpheme-initially and is in almost complementary distribution with the labialized velar nasal. |
| Source(s): | Keesing, R.M. 1985. Kwaio Grammar. Pacific Linguistics series B, no. 88. Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University. |