Lihir language

Last updated
Lihir
Lir
Region Lihir Island, off New Ireland
Native speakers
13,000 (2000 census) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 lih
Glottolog lihi1237

The Lihir language (Lir) is an Austronesian language spoken in the Lihir island group, in New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea. It is notable for having five levels of grammatical number: singular, dual, trial, paucal and plural. [2] It is questionable whether the trial is indeed trial or whether it is paucal, leaving there being a paucal and a greater paucal. [2] Either way, this is the highest number of levels of grammatical number in any language. [2] This distinction appears in both independent pronouns and possessor suffixes. [2] There is some variation in pronunciation and orthography between the main island Niolam, and some of the smaller islands in the group.

Contents

Name

The name Lihir is an exonym from the related Patpatar language. Natively, it is called Lir, a cognate of the Patpatar name.

Phonology

Sources are indeterminate with regards to the phonemic status of different surface vowels, although minimal pairs provide evidence for the phonemic status of most vowel qualities. [3]

Vowel Phonemes of Lihir [4]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a
Consonant Phonemes of Lihir
Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Nasals m n ŋ
Stops plain p t k ʔ
prenasalized ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ
Affricates t͡s
Fricatives s z x h
Liquids l ɾ
Semivowels w j

Related Research Articles

In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions. English and other languages present number categories of singular or plural, both of which are cited by using the hash sign (#) or by the numero signs "No." and "Nos." respectively. Some languages also have a dual, trial and paucal number or other arrangements.

Rotokas is a North Bougainville language spoken by about 4,320 people on the island of Bougainville, an island located to the east of New Guinea which is part of Papua New Guinea. According to Allen and Hurd (1963), there are three identified dialects: Central Rotokas, Aita Rotokas, and Pipipaia; with a further dialect spoken in Atsilima (Atsinima) village with an unclear status. Central Rotokas is most notable for its extremely small phonemic inventory and for having perhaps the smallest modern alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polynesian languages</span> Language family

The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family.

Motu is a Central Papuan Tip language that is spoken by the Motuans, an indigenous ethnic group of Papua New Guinea. It is commonly used today in the region, particularly around the capital, Port Moresby.

Isaka (I’saka) is the language spoken by the people of the villages of Krisa and Pasi in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It has also been referred to as Krisa, after the village, although this name is not actually a possible word in the language itself. The sole published source for the language is Donohue and San Roque (2004), although the authors of this have also Identified I’saka material in Donald Laycock's unpublished fieldnotes.

The Karkar language, also known as Yuri, is the sole Eastern Pauwasi language of Papua New Guinea. There are about a thousand speakers along the Indonesian border spoken in Green River Rural LLG, Sandaun Province.

Sulka is a language isolate of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. In 1991, there were 2,500 speakers in eastern Pomio District, East New Britain Province. Villages include Guma in East Pomio Rural LLG. With such a low population of speakers, this language is considered to be endangered. Sulka speakers had originally migrated to East New Britain from New Ireland.

The Yele language, or Yélî Dnye, is the language of Rossel Island, the easternmost island in the Louisiade Archipelago off the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea. There were some 4,000 speakers in 1998, comprising the entire ethnic population. The language remains unclassified by linguists.

The Tolai language, or Kuanua, is spoken by the Tolai people of Papua New Guinea, who live on the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain Province.

The Nalik language is spoken by 5,000 or so people, based in 17 villages in Kavieng District, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. It is an Austronesian language and member of the New Ireland group of languages with a subject–verb–object (SVO) phrase structure. New Ireland languages are among the first Papua New Guinea languages recorded by Westerners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huli language</span> Tari language spoken in Papua New Guinea

Huli is a Tari language spoken by the Huli people of the Hela Province of Papua New Guinea. It has a pentadecimal (base-15) numeral system: ngui means 15, ngui ki means 15×2 = 30, and ngui ngui means 15×15 = 225.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lihir Island</span>

Lihir Island is the largest island in the Lihir group of islands, 22 km long and 14.5 km wide, in Papua New Guinea's New Ireland Province. It consists of a complex of several overlapping basaltic stratovolcanoes rising 700 m above sea level. While the volcanoes are not currently active, geothermal activity is still present. The island is in what was the forearc basin associated with the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North Bismarck Plate. Subduction stopped about 10 million years ago with the collision of the Ontong Java plateau with the subduction zone.

Kara is an Austronesian language spoken by about 5,000 people in 1998 in the Kavieng District of New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea.

Telefol is a language spoken by the Telefol people in Papua New Guinea, notable for possessing a base-27 numeral system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duna language</span> Language spoken in Papua New Guinea

Duna is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. It may belong to the Trans New Guinea language family and is often further classified as a Duna-Pogaya language, for Bogaya appears to be Duna's closest relative, as evidenced by the similar development of the personal pronouns. Estimates for number of speakers range from 11,000 (1991) to 25,000 (2002).

Urim is a Torricelli language of Papua New Guinea. It is also known as Kalp; dialects are Kukwo, Yangkolen. There is a grammatical description by Hemmilä and Luoma (2009).

Mapos Buang, also known as Mapos or Central Buang, is an Oceanic language in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

Obokuitai (Obogwitai) is a Lakes Plain language of Papua, Indonesia. It is named after Obogwi village in East Central Mambermano District, Mamberamo Raya Regency.

Nen is a Yam language spoken in the Bimadbn village in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, with 250 speakers as of a 2002 SIL survey. It is situated between the speech communities of Nambu and Idi.

Siar, also known as Lak, Lamassa, or Likkilikki, is an Austronesian language spoken in New Ireland Province in the southern island point of Papua New Guinea. Lak is in the Patpatar-Tolai sub-group, which then falls under the New Ireland-Tolai group in the Western Oceanic language, a sub-group within the Austronesian family. The Siar people keep themselves sustained and nourished by fishing and gardening. The native people call their language ep warwar anun dat, which means 'our language'.

References

  1. Lihir at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Corbett, Greville G. (2000). Number. Cambridge textbooks in linguistics. Cambridge University Press. p. 25. ISBN   9780521649704 . Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  3. Neuhaus, Karl (2015). Grammar of the Lihir Language of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. Boroko, Port Moresby: Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies. p. 30.
  4. Park, Min-ha and Shin-Hee (2003). Lihir organised phonology data. SIL.