Mussau-Emira language

The Mussau-Emira language is spoken on the islands of Mussau and Emirau in the St Matthias Islands in the Bismarck Archipelago.

Consonants
Mussau-Emira distinguishes the following consonants.


 * Fricative sounds may also be heard as voiced stop sounds  in word-initial position and when geminated.

Stress
In most words the primary stress falls on the penultimate vowel and secondary stresses fall on every second syllable preceding that. This is true of suffixed forms as well, as in níma 'hand', nimá-gi 'my hand'; níu 'coconut', niúna 'its coconut'.

Subject prefixes
Prefixes mark the subjects of each verb:
 * (agi) a-namanama 'I'm eating'
 * (io) u-namanama 'you're (sing.) eating'
 * (ia) e-namanama 'he's/she's eating'

Numbers

 * 1) kateva
 * 2) galua
 * 3) kotolu
 * 4) gaata
 * 5) galima
 * 6) gaonomo
 * 7) gaitu
 * 8) gaoalu
 * 9) kasio
 * 10) kasaŋaulu