Phonology
Biak has a phoneme inventory consisting of 13 consonants and 5 vowels, in which vowel length is phonemic. In the orthography long vowels are written with an acute accent. The phoneme /t/ is very infrequent in its use and some older speakers still realise it as in loanwords.
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | b p | d t | k | ||
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Fricative | β | f | s | ||
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||
| Approximant | w | j |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Mid | e eː | ɤ ɤː | |
| Open | a aː |
All vowels in Biak are unrounded with the exception of /u/, which is rounded.
Read more about this topic: Biak Language