Tarangan language
# Tarangan language

Tarangan is one of the Aru languages, spoken by inhabitants of the Aru Islands in eastern Indonesia. There are two varieties of Tarangan: East and West Tarangan. These varieties are divergent, perhaps no closer than they are to Manombai, also spoken in the Arus. West Tarangan is a trade language of the southern islands.

## Phonology

The following is the description for West Tarangan:

### Consonants

Consonant phonemes :

| | | Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | n | | ŋ | |
| Plosive | voiceless | (p) | t̪ | | k | (ʔ) |
| Plosive | voiced | b | d | (dʒ) | (ɡ) | |
| Fricative | Fricative | ɸ | s | | | |
| Flap | Flap | | ɾ | | | |
| Lateral | Lateral | | l | | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | | | j | w | |

* /k/ can occur as a glottal [ʔ] intervocalically between two non-high vowels.
* /ɸ/ is heard as a stop [p] syllable-final position.
* /w j/ are heard as voiced stops [ɡ dʒ] in word-initial position and within a stressed noninitial syllable onset.

### Vowels

Vowel phonemes :

| | Front | Central | Back |
| - | - | - | - |
| Close | i | | u |
| Close-mid | e | | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | | ɔ |
| Open | | a | |

* /a i/ in unstressed positions are heard as [ə ɪ].
* Sounds /e o/ are phonetically [e̝ o̝].
