Sursurunga language
| Sursurunga | |
|---|---|
| Region | New Ireland |
Native speakers | (3,000 cited 1991)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | sgz |
| Glottolog | surs1246 |
| ELP | Lua error in Module:Endangered_Languages_Project at line 21: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
Sursurunga is an Oceanic language of New Ireland.
Phonology
[edit | edit source]Consonants
[edit | edit source]| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t̪ | k | |||
| voiced | b | d | g | ||||
| Fricative | s | h | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||||
- /p/ has two allophones: [pʷ] syllable initially and [p̚] syllable finally.[3]
- /t̪/ has two allophones: [t̪] syllable initially and [t̪]~[t̪͆] syllable finally.[4]
- /k/ has two allophones: [k] syllable initially and [k]~[k̚]~[kʰ] syllable finally.[4]
- Voiced stops /b/ [bʷ], /d/, and /g/ only occur syllable initially. Plain and prenasalized voiced stops (i.e., [ᵐbʷ], [ⁿd], [ᵑg]) are in free variation word initially. Voiced stops are nasalized word-medially between vowels and after non-nasal consonants. [ɖ], a "voiced alveolar slightly retroflexed stop" is also heard word medially.[5]
- /s/ is [s] syllable initially and finally.[6]
- /h/ is a "voiceless vocoid occurring word finally following a voiced vocoid of the same quality."[7]
- /m/ is [mʷ] syllable initially and [m] syllable finally. It becomes [mʷ] after a rounded vowel.[7]
- /l/ is /lʲ/ initially and finally.[8]
- Semivowels /w/ and /j/ only occur syllable initially.[8]
Vowels
[edit | edit source]| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | ɔ |
| Low | a |
Orthography
[edit | edit source]Sursurunga has fifteen consonants—⟨b d g h k l m n ng p r s t w y⟩— and six vowels—⟨a á e i o u⟩.[11]
⟨ng⟩ is the velar nasal /ŋ/ and ⟨á⟩ is the schwa.[11]
Number
[edit | edit source]Sursurunga is famous for having a five-way grammatical number distinction. The numbers beside singular, dual, and plural have been called trial and quadral;[12] however, these numbers, which only occur on pronouns, indicate a minimum of three and four, not exactly three and four the way the dual indicates exactly two.[13] They are equivalent to "a few" and "several", and Corbett has called them (lesser) paucal and greater paucal. The trial cannot be used for dyadic kinship terms, whereas the quadral is used for two or three such pair relationships.
| SG | DU | TRI | QUAD | PL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.INCL | iau | giur | gimtul | gimhat | gim |
| 1.EXCL | — | gitar | gittul | githat | git |
| 2 | iáu | gaur | gamtul | gamhat | gam |
| 3 | -i/on/ái | diar | ditul | dihat | di |
Notes
[edit | edit source]- ^ Sursurunga at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 168-172.
- ^ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 168.
- ^ a b Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 169.
- ^ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 169-170.
- ^ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, pp. 170–171.
- ^ a b Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 171.
- ^ a b Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 172.
- ^ King 2007, p. 5.
- ^ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 164.
- ^ a b Samson, Hutchisson & Hutchisson 2018, p. 11.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
References
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- Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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