Ughele is an Oceanic language spoken by about 1200 people on Rendova Island, located in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. There is no internal dialect differentiation. Phonology The following information is gathered from Benedicte Haraldstad Frostad. A Grammar of Ughele: A Language of The Solomon Islands. 2012. Pages 35–48 Vowel inventory Ughele contains a five-vowel inventory that is typical of most Oceanic languages. These are differentiated by changes in the place of articulation and the degree of stricture required to produce the sound. Lip rounding only accounts for the differentiation of two segments. These are the close-mid back vowel and the close back vowel . This inventory consists of three front vowels: , , ; two back , and no central phonemes. There is no variation in vowel length. Minimal pairs Distinguished by place of articulation and - 'flying fox' and 'bald' and - 'we/us' and 'you' Distinguished by level of stricture and - 'stone' and 'mangrove' and - 'thousand' and 'body' and - 'slippery cabbage' and 'fire' and - 'lake' and 'to pick' Consonant inventory Ughele has 18 consonants and no consonant clusters, unless spoken accidentally. Stops Ughele contains bilabial, alveolar and velar stops. These are , and respectively, as well as voiced and unvoiced pairs for all plosives. and and ('four' and 'die/dead') and ('to make pudding/pudding' and 'nail') All voiced stops are pre-nasalised, however the degree of this varies between speakers. Pronunciation of this runs from barely audible nasalisation to almost fully nasalised segments. E.g. → , → , → Nasal and oral pairs for all voiced stops e.g. → , → , → Voiced bilabial nasals and non-nasals e.g. and , and Voiced velar nasals and non-nasals e.g. 'open' → 'a fish species' Voiced bilabial, alveolar and velar stops e.g. 'tired' → 'happy' → 'spirit, devil' Unvoiced stops (negation indicator), (location phrase indicator), (possession indicator) Voiced bilabial/alveolar/velar nasals e.g. 'obey', 'sagopalm pudding', 'sharp, long' Alveolar trill There is only one found in Ughele; this is in the lexeme ('rope'). Fricatives Labiodental, alveolar, velar and glottal , , , and Labiodental and velar are voiced and → 'you' and 'to put' Glottal fricatives are unvoiced 'to wipe' and 'to tie' Voiced and unvoiced alveolars 'hot drink' and 'penis' The affricate This post-alveolar affricate is sometimes realised as a palatal nasal stop , although this is relatively rare in spoken language and therefore is speaker-dependent. →