Titan, also known as Manus, is an East Manus language of the Austronesian language family spoken in the southeastern part of Manus Island, New Guinea, and neighboring islands by about 4,000 people.

Titan has a bilabial trill and prenasalized consonants, as in [ⁿrakeiʔin] 'girls' and [ᵐʙutukei] 'wooden plate'.

Phonology

Phonology of the Titan language:

Consonant sounds
LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
plainlab.
Plosivep()tck(ʔ)
Nasalm()nɲŋ
Fricativevsh
Prenasalized Trillᵐʙⁿdr
Trillr
Laterall
Approximantwj

Consonant sounds in parentheses are only inferred to exist in Titan, or to exist in other dialects of Titan.

Vowel sounds
FrontCentralBack
Highiu
ɪ
Mideo
Lowa

An /e/ sound may also be interchangeable with an open-mid sound /ɛ/.

Further reading

  • Bowern, Claire (2011). Sivisa Titan: Sketch grammar, texts, vocabulary based on material collected by P. Josef Meier and Po Minis. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 38. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
  • Ladefoged, Peter (2005). Vowels and Consonants (2nd ed.) Blackwell.

External links