Sanio language

Not to be confused with Hewa language.

Sanio
Hiowe
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	East Sepik Province
Native speakers	1,300 (2000 census)[1]
Language family	Sepik Sepik Hill Sanio
Dialects	Saniyo Hiyowe
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sny
Glottolog	sani1270
ELP	Saniyo-Hiyewe

Sanio, or more precisely Saniyo-Hiyewe, is a Sepik language of Tunap/Hunstein Rural LLG in East Sepik Province, northern Papua New Guinea. It is also spoken in Telefomin Rural LLG, Sandaun Province.[1]

Dialects

Dialects are:[1][2]

• Hiyowe dialect, spoken in Maposi village (4.547475°S 142.220638°E / -4.547475; 142.220638 (Maposi)) of Tunap-Hunstein Rural LLG
• Saniyo dialect, spoken in Hanasi (4.523215°S 142.375861°E / -4.523215; 142.375861 (Hanasi)), Malapute’e (4.58544°S 142.33631°E / -4.58544; 142.33631 (Moropotei)), Pukapuki, Salunapi (4.551342°S 142.343271°E / -4.551342; 142.343271 (Saurinapi)), and Sio (4.450431°S 142.316392°E / -4.450431; 142.316392 (Sio)) villages of Tunap-Hunstein Rural LLG

Phonology

Consonants[3]

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t		k	ʔ ⟨'⟩
Fricative	ɸ ⟨f⟩	s			h
Nasal	m	n
Approximant	w	r	j

• /r/ has the allophone [l] word-initially, which is written with the separate character ⟨l⟩.
• /ʔ/ only appears intervocalically.

Vowels[3]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid-high	e ⟨ei⟩		o
Mid-low	ɛ ⟨e⟩
Low		a

• /ɛ/ is pronounced [ei] before /j/. In this case it is written as ⟨ei⟩.

Additionally, the following diphthongs can be found: /ai/, /au/, /ou/.

References

1. Sanio at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
3. Lewis, Ron (2002). Saniyo Hiyewe Organised Phonology Data. SIL International.