Sulka language

Last updated • 5 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Sulka
Native to Papua New Guinea
Regioneastern Pomio District, East New Britain Province
Native speakers
(2,500 cited 1991) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 sua
Glottolog sulk1246
ELP Sulka
Coordinates: 5°16′33″S152°05′32″E / 5.275769°S 152.092315°E / -5.275769; 152.092315 (Guma Village)

Sulka is a language isolate of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. [2] In 1991, there were 2,500 speakers in eastern Pomio District, East New Britain Province. [3] Villages include Guma ( 5°16′33″S152°05′32″E / 5.275769°S 152.092315°E / -5.275769; 152.092315 (Guma Village) ) in East Pomio Rural LLG. [4] With such a low population of speakers, this language is considered to be endangered.[ citation needed ] Sulka speakers had originally migrated to East New Britain from New Ireland. [5]

Contents

Geographic distribution

Sulka is spoken along the coastal region of Wide Bay, [4] on the Southern coast of the Gazelle Peninsula, [6] on the eastern side of New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea. Some estimate speakers to number as high as between 3,000 and 3,500. [7] [4] Reesink (2005) reports on some Sulka speakers who have intermingled in neighboring villages with speakers of other languages such as Mali, southeast of Kokopo. [4]

Classification

Sulka may be described as having ancient Papuan (non-Austronesian) roots, which additionally displays morphosyntactic constructions and some vocabulary items associated with the Oceanic branch of Austronesian (i.e. languages of the St. George linkage such as Mali). [8] Alternatively, it has been proposed as possibly related to Kol or Baining as part of the East Papuan proposal, but Palmer (2018) treats Sulka as a language isolate. [9]

Sulka has some influence from the Mengen language. [5]

Over 3,000 to 3,500 years ago, the linguistic ancestors of Sulka speakers arrived in the Papua New Guinea area. [2]

History

Although the history of the language is not well known, it may display a mixture of Oceanic and Papuan language traits. [10] These are languages Sulka came into contact with, when the peoples speaking these other languages populated the area in neighboring villages, around 3,200 years ago. [11]

Phonology

Consonants

The phonological system of Sulka comprises 28 contrasting segments, fourteen consonants, and seven vowels. [4] On the topic of consonants, there is no recent evidence to support contrast between [b] and [β], therefore they're assumed to be allophones and are represented in the table of consonants as [β] only. [4]

Sulka consonants are: [5]

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Stop voiced ( d ) g ( q )
voiceless p t k
Nasal m ŋ ( ɴ )
Fricative β s ( ɣ )( ʁ ) h
Lateral l
Trill r
Approximant j

Vowels

For its vowels, Sulka has a contrast between three front vowels: high, mid, and low, [i], [e], and [ε], but there is no instance of the central high vowel [ɨ]. [4] However, when it comes to vocalic contrasts, it is not always clear. The mid front vowel may fluctuate somewhere between close-mid [e] and the more central-close vowel [ɪ], pronounced like English i in 'in'. [4] The sounds [o] and [u] often fluctuate with each other as in the example of '1SG verbal pronoun' [ku] and [ko]. This pattern of fluctuation seems to commonly occur for high front vowels. When looking at the length of vowels, long vowels are often confused with diphthongs.

Front Back
Close short i u
long i ː u ː
Mid short e ~ ɪ , ɛ o , ɔ
long eː oː, ɔː
Open short a
long aː

The seven vowel sounds can be found in the following words: [4]

IPA Meaning
[hip]'tree wallaby'
[hep]'bed'
[hɛp]'make fire'
[lul]'flow'
[lol]'carry (PL object)'
[yok]'namesake'
[yɔk]'taro'
[ko]'there'
[kat]'again'

The words below contain closed syllables which are the only attested words showing that syllable length is phonemic: [4]

IPA Meaning
[iːs]'able, enough'
[pkɔːn]'hornbill'
[harpeːt]'fall'
[βuːt]'fall (lightly)'
[poːm]'push'
[naːk]'grave mound'

Lexicon

A great majority of Sulka's lexicon is not Oceanic/Austronesian as stated by Schneider. However, there are a few words that are shared between both Papuan and Oceanic.

Examples from Geelvink (2005):

Nouns

Selected Sulka nouns showing singular and plural forms (Tharp 1996: 161-163): [12]

glosssingularplural
‘part’mhemhetor
‘vagina’khakhator
‘house’rɨkrɨktor
‘hole’nhonhotor
‘cliff’vɨkvɨktor
‘colorful belt’lɨplɨptor
‘knife’komkomtok
‘water’yiyitok
‘heart’ngaungngaungtok
‘nose’vorngapvrongtok
‘green lizard’gutgɨtok
‘song’kniknituk
‘head’lpeklpetuk
‘morning’rotruteik
‘string bag’psangvasngeik
‘family’valnganvalngneik
‘charcoal’valangvalngeik
‘finger nail’pgapgeik
‘small garden plot’sarsareik
‘vein’spangsapngeik
‘shoulder’volhavolheik
‘sky’volkhavolkheik
‘mountain’vulvleik
‘container’kolhikolheik
‘wild pitpit’ngaiphengaiphol
‘snake’vimvimol
‘bat’viɨngviɨngol
‘disciplining stick’khapkhapol
‘fruit’mitmitol
‘mushroom’tlingtinngol
‘fish’slangsinngol
‘meat’vothekvothol
‘place’ngaekamngaekmol
‘roof of mouth’kningkningol
‘reed’psiɨngpsiɨngol
‘bird’ngaininginingol
‘edge’ngaitingitngol
‘monster’ngainkuoinkuol
‘sister’s brother’lurlok
‘mountain’vulvlik
‘coconut leaf’kriarkerik
‘forehead’leinleinik
‘kina shell’ngaekigik
‘fetish’tarmektarmki
‘lobster’hivotekhivotgi
‘coss-buai’rongteprongtvi
‘root’kavgotkvukti
‘lake’ngaenkerenekri
‘lime’ngaikerikri
‘anger’ngaesikresik
‘ear’ngaelarela
‘door’ngaegotrelot
‘job’ngaehareha
‘wing’ngaehoreho
‘road’ngaelotrelot
‘sound’ngaetireti
‘type of kaukau’ngoyeroye
‘brawl’ngausraus
‘brother’s brother’nopiarnopeik
‘father’s daughter’kvɨkrkvɨk
‘father’s father’poirpoik
‘sister’s brother’lurlok
‘brother’s sister’etemrotmik
‘father’s son’halrhol
‘reef’kamngalkomngol
‘tree’hohi
‘skin’ptaikptek
‘hair’ngirisngɨris
‘grass skirt’nhepnhek
‘blood’ɨndiɨlɨriɨl
‘yam’tousngu
‘coconut’ksiɨges
‘speech’rererhek
‘shell money’pekkirpik
‘ground’mmiemarhok
‘person’mhelmia
‘road’ngaelautnghek

Grammar

Verbs

FreePerfective RealisFuture Irrealis
1SGdokko-~ku-ngu-er(a)
2SGyeni-ngi-er(a)
3SGëënt-n-er(a)
1PLmorngo-t-ngur-er(a)
2PLmukmu-tumug-er(a)
3PLmarnga-t-ng-er(a)
1DUmuomo-t-mu-er(a)
2DUmoemë-t-më-er(a)
3DUmenmen-t-ngen-tngen-er(a)

Basic verb phrases are similar to Oceanic languages. For a typical Austronesian sentence structure, it follows the subject-verb-object word order whereas Papuan follows a subject-object-verb word order. Free pronouns mainly act as verbal or prepositional object. Instead of having the bilabial nasal found on the free pronouns, first and third person plural have an initial velar. [4] Additionally, the basic verb phrase begins with a subject proclitic indicating both subject person/number and aspect/mood. This is followed by one or more verbs, a (pro)nominal object where necessary, and optional oblique constituents. [4]

Kua

Ku-a

1SG-IPFV

pater

pat-er

think-TR

yen

yen

2SG

orom

orom

with

o

o

PL

Sulka

Sulka

Sulka

nga

nga

3SG.POSS

re.

re

talk

Kua pater yen orom o Sulka nga re.

Ku-a pat-eryen orom o Sulka nga re

1SG-IPFV think-TR 2SG with PL Sulka 3SG.POSS talk

"I am teaching you the Sulka language"

According to Reesink (2005), the most common future form he recorded was the same one identified previously. He cites this work by Schneider (1942:323) where this form was named a separate modal particle er(a). [4]

Ngiera

Ngi=er=a

2SG.IRR-FUT-IPFV

vokong

vokong

see

a

a

SG

ho

ho

tree

lang

lang

certain

to

to

that

nera

n=er=a

3SG.IRR-FUT-IPFV

hurpis.

hur-pis

appear-arrive

Ngiera vokong a ho lang to nera hurpis.

Ngi=er=a vokong a ho lang to n=er=a hur-pis

2SG.IRR-FUT-IPFV see SG tree certain that 3SG.IRR-FUT-IPFV appear-arrive

"You will see a certain tree sprouting."

Habitual aspect and conditional mood utilize the same forms as the irrealis, both for 1SG and 2SG. In contrast, all of the other forms have more in common with the future pronouns because they also lack 3SG-t. Below, see examples of the habitual and the conditional, respectively:

Koma

Ko=ma

1SG=HAB=IPFV

vle

vle

stay

ma

ma

LOC

Mlavui

Mlavui

Mlavui

kun

kun

inside

mnam

mnam

inside

a

a

SG

rengmat

rengmat

village

to

to

that

e

e

ART

Guma.

Guma

Guma

Koma vle ma Mlavui kun mnam a rengmat to e Guma.

Ko=ma vle ma Mlavui kun mnam a rengmat to e Guma

1SG=HAB=IPFV stay LOC Mlavui inside inside SG village that ART Guma

"I am staying at Mlavui inside the village Guma."

Kopa

Ko=pa=a

1SG=COND=IPFV

ya

ya

good

va

va

and

kopa

Ko=p=a

1SG=COND=IPFV

ngae.

ngae

go

Kopa ya va kopa ngae.

Ko=pa=a ya va Ko=p=a ngae

1SG=COND=IPFV good and 1SG=COND=IPFV go

"If I had been well, I would have gone."

Grammatical gender

Most Papuan languages have masculine and feminine distinctions. However, the Sulka language does not follow this rule. As for the Austronesian languages, where they have inclusive and exclusive opposition in nonsingular first person, Sulka does not follow them either (Sulka of East New Britain: A Mixture of Oceanic and Papuan Traits, Reesink, 2005). As stated by Reesink, "There is not even a third person differentiation between feminine and masculine genders".

Papuan vs Austronesian

Austronesian Papuan
Word order SVO and prepositions
Phonology Phonemic inventory resembles Mengen phonemic contrast [l] and [r]Resembles Kol, (almost) all consonants occur word-finally many consonant clusters
Lexicon Lacks typical AN lexicon
Verb morphology Mood: realis vs irrealis as portmanteau with subject proclitics sequential ka
Valency changing devices Transitivizing suffix no causative prefix *pa(ka) no reciprocal *paRi stem change for object number
Pronominal system Lacks gender on 3SGLacks INCL/EXCL on 1 NONSG
Nominal constituent Prenominal articles/demonstratives
Plural formation Plural formation with irregular forms, some of which are possibly cognate with Kol, Kuot, and Lavukaleve
Adjectives Attributive adjective=nominalized form
Possessive constructions Possessor is prefixed to possessed item no POSS suffix on inalienables
Counting system Quinary (base-5) system
Deictic elements Some cognates with Tolai
Social organization Moieties with clans resembling Mengen matrilineal

Further reading

Related Research Articles

Mbula is an Austronesian language spoken by around 2,500 people on Umboi Island and Sakar Island in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. Its basic word order is subject–verb–object; it has a nominative–accusative case-marking strategy.

The Nafsan language, also known as South Efate or Erakor, is a Southern Oceanic language spoken on the island of Efate in central Vanuatu. As of 2005, there are approximately 6,000 speakers who live in coastal villages from Pango to Eton. The language's grammar has been studied by Nick Thieberger, who has produced a book of stories and a dictionary of the language.

Manam is a Kairiru–Manam language spoken mainly on the volcanic Manam Island, northeast of New Guinea.

Warembori is a moribund language spoken by about 600 people in Warembori village, Mamberamo Hilir District, Mamberamo Raya Regency, located around river mouths on the north coast of Papua, Indonesia.

Apma is the language of central Pentecost island in Vanuatu. Apma is an Oceanic language. Within Vanuatu it sits between North Vanuatu and Central Vanuatu languages, and combines features of both groups.

Numbami is an Austronesian language spoken by about 200 people with ties to a single village in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Siboma village, Paiawa ward, Morobe Rural LLG.

Yabem, or Jabêm, is an Austronesian language of Papua New Guinea.

Proto-Oceanic is a proto-language that historical linguists since Otto Dempwolff have reconstructed as the hypothetical common ancestor of the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Oceanic is a descendant of the Proto-Austronesian language (PAN), the common ancestor of the Austronesian languages.

Biak, also known as Biak-Numfor, Noefoor, Mafoor, Mefoor, Nufoor, Mafoorsch, Myfoorsch and Noefoorsch, is an Austronesian language of the South Halmahera-West New Guinea subgroup of the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages.

Kâte is a Papuan language spoken by about 6,000 people in the Finschhafen District of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. It is part of the Finisterre–Huon branch of the Trans–New Guinea language family. It was adopted for teaching and mission work among speakers of Papuan languages by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea in the early 1900s and at one time had as many as 80,000 second-language speakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nias language</span> Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia

The Nias language is an Austronesian language spoken on Nias Island and the Batu Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is known as Li Niha by its native speakers. It belongs to the Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands subgroup which also includes Mentawai and the Batak languages. It had about 770,000 speakers in 2000. There are three main dialects: northern, central and southern. It is an open-syllable language, which means there are no syllable-final consonants.

Papuan Malay or Irian Malay is a Malay-based creole language spoken in the Indonesian part of New Guinea. It emerged as a contact language among tribes in Indonesian New Guinea for trading and daily communication. Nowadays, it has a growing number of native speakers. More recently, the vernacular of Indonesian Papuans has been influenced by Standard Indonesian, the national standard dialect. It is spoken in Indonesian New Guinea alongside 274 other languages and functions as a lingua franca.

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

Iatmul is the language of the Iatmul people, spoken around the Sepik River in the East Sepik Province, northern Papua New Guinea. The Iatmul, however, do not refer to their language by the term Iatmul, but call it gepmakudi.

Mav̋ea is an Oceanic language spoken on Mavea Island in Vanuatu, off the eastern coast of Espiritu Santo. It belongs to the North–Central Vanuatu linkage of Southern Oceanic. The total population of the island is approximately 172, with only 34 fluent speakers of the Mav̋ea language reported in 2008.

Mekeo is a language spoken in Papua New Guinea and had 19,000 speakers in 2003. It is an Oceanic language of the Papuan Tip Linkage. The two major villages that the language is spoken in are located in the Central Province of Papua New Guinea. These are named Ongofoina and Inauaisa. The language is also broken up into four dialects: East Mekeo; North West Mekeo; West Mekeo and North Mekeo. The standard dialect is East Mekeo. This main dialect is addressed throughout the article. In addition, there are at least two Mekeo-based pidgins.

Tawala is an Oceanic language of the Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by 20,000 people who live in hamlets and small villages on the East Cape peninsula, on the shores of Milne Bay and on areas of the islands of Sideia and Basilaki. There are approximately 40 main centres of population each speaking the same dialect, although through the process of colonisation some centres have gained more prominence than others.

Kelon, or Klon, is a Papuan language of the western tip of Alor Island in the Alor archipelago of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toʼabaita language</span> Malaita language of the Solomon Islands

Toʼabaita, also known as Toqabaqita, Toʼambaita, Malu and Maluʼu, is a language spoken by the people living at the north-western tip of Malaita Island, of South Eastern Solomon Islands. Toʼabaita is an Austronesian language.

Merei or Malmariv is an Oceanic language spoken in north central Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu.

Lengo or informally known as doku is a Southeast Solomonic language of Guadalcanal and is closely related to Gela language.

References

  1. ↑ Sulka at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 Dunn, Michael; Levinson, Stephen C.; Lindström, Eva; Reesink, Ger; Terrill, Angela (2008). "Structural Phylogeny in Historical Linguistics: Methodological Explorations Applied in Island Melanesia". Language. 84 (4): 710–759. doi:10.1353/lan.0.0069. hdl: 11858/00-001M-0000-0013-1F55-5 . ISSN   1535-0665. S2CID   6356461.
  3. ↑ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Reesink, Ger. 2005. Sulka of East New Britain: A Mixture of Oceanic and Papuan Traits. Oceanic Linguistics 44. 145-193.
  5. 1 2 3 Stebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 775–894. ISBN   978-3-11-028642-7.
  6. ↑ Tharpe, Douglas (1996). "Sulka Grammar Essentials". SIL International Publications. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  7. ↑ Papua New Guinea, ed. (1983). 1980 national population census: final figures: provincial summary. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea: National Statistical Office.
  8. ↑ Reesink, Ger P. (2005). "Sulka of East New Britain: A Mixture of Oceanic and Papuan Traits" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 44 (1): 145–193. doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0026. ISSN   1527-9421. S2CID   142693537.
  9. ↑ Palmer, Bill (2018). "Language families of the New Guinea Area". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 1–20. ISBN   978-3-11-028642-7.
  10. ↑ Reesink, Ger P. (2005). "Sulka of East New Britain: A Mixture of Oceanic and Papuan Traits" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 44 (1): 145–193. doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0026. ISSN   1527-9421. S2CID   142693537.
  11. ↑ Michael Dunn; Stephen C. Levinson; Eva Lindström; Ger Reesink; Angela Terrill (2008). "Structural Phylogeny in Historical Linguistics: Methodological Explorations Applied in Island Melanesia". Language. 84 (4): 710–759. doi:10.1353/lan.0.0069. hdl: 11858/00-001M-0000-0013-1F55-5 . ISSN   1535-0665. S2CID   6356461.
  12. ↑ Tharp, Douglas. 1996. Sulka grammar essentials. In John M. Clifton (ed.), Two non-Austronesian grammars from the islands, 77-179. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.