| Fore | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Goroka District, Eastern Highlands Province |
| Ethnicity | Fore |
Native speakers | 30,000 (2000)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | for |
| Glottolog | fore1270 |
Fore or Foré /ˈfɔːreɪ/[2] is a Kainantu-Goroka language spoken in the Goroka District of Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.
The consonants of Fore are as follows:[3]
| Bilabial | Dental/Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stops | Plain | p | t̪ | k | ʔ | |
| Prenasalized | mp | n̪t̪~nt | ŋk | |||
| Nasals | m | n̪~n | ||||
| Fricative | s̪~s | |||||
| Approximants | w | j | ||||
All the dental consonants can vary to alveolar, except /t̪/ which is always dental. /p/, /t̪/, and /k/ are pronounced as /b/, /ɾ/, and /g/ between vowels. Velar consonants are labialized after rounded vowels. /j/ is often pronounced as a fricative /ʝ/.
Fore has six vowels:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | eː | ʌ | oː |
| Open | aː |
It also has four diphthongs: ae, ao, ai, and au.
Fore has a pitch accent system. Each syllable is either accented or unaccented. Multiple accented syllables can occur in the same word, but they cannot be adjacent to each other.
