Kobon language

Kobon
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Madang Province, Middle Ramu District, and Western Highlands Province on Kaironk River in lower Jimi River area north of Mt. Hagen
Native speakers	10,000 (2007) 4,000 monolinguals (2007?)
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Madang Rai Coast–Kalam Kalam Kalam–Kobon Kobon
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog	kobo1249
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Kobon (pronounced Kxombon) is a language of Papua New Guinea. It has somewhere around 90–120 verbs.

Kobon is spoken in Madang Province and Western Highlands Province, north of Mount Hagen.

Monophthongal vowels are /i e ɨ ə a o u/, diphthongs are /ai̯ au̯/. /i/ and /u/ may be [jɪ] and [wʊ~ʍʊ] word-initially. /ɨ/ ([ɨ~ɯ]) is written ⟨ü⟩ and /ə/ ([ɐ̝~ə̝~ɨ̟̞]) is written ⟨ö⟩.

Only /i a u/ and the diphthongs occur word-initially, apart from the quotative particle, which is variably /a~e~o~ö/. /e o/ occur syllable-initially within a word. All vowels (including the diphthongs) occur syllable-medially (in CVC syllables), syllable-finally and at the ends of words. Many vowel sequences occur, including some with identical vowels.

Kobon distinguishes an alveolar lateral /l/, a palatal lateral /ʎ/, a subapical retroflex lateral flap / / (ɭ̆ ), and a fricative trill /r̝/, though the frication on the latter is variable.

...
Wikipedia