Neruañ Language

Neruañ (/neˈrwaɲ/) is an Aruanian language spoken by the Newañi people of Nehañanun in the southern interior of Mukonia Island. Its relationship with Kendusyn, another Mukonian language, is widely debated, with possible deep Aruanian inheritance obscured by long separation and contact. Neruañ has been strongly shaped by Igniazi Bitiasau trade, placing it within the Greater Bitiasau Sprachbund. It is mainly SOV, head-final, suffixing, and agglutinative, with light (C)V(C) syllables, postpositions, evidential particles, switch-reference, and mountain-path directionals. Its vowels are /a e i o u ɨ/, with marginal older nasal vowels, and its consonants include /p t k ʔ m n ɲ ŋ s ʃ h t͡s t͡ʃ w j l r ɾ/, plus loan /b d g ɣ ʑ ɬ/. Stress is usually penultimate, though some old roots preserve final stress. Neruañ is known for body-part agency, no ordinary “I”, whole-being blame constructions, and Igniazi loans for trade, cloth, metalwork, law, and coastal life.