Sursurunga language

Last updated

Sursurunga
Region New Ireland
Native speakers
(3,000 cited 1991) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 sgz
Glottolog surs1246

Sursurunga is an Oceanic language of New Ireland.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants [2]
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

Vowels

Vowels [9] [10]
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ə ɔ
Low a

Orthography

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]

Contents

⟨ng⟩ is the velar nasal /ŋ/ and ⟨á⟩ is the schwa. [11]

Number

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.

Emphatic pronouns [13]
SGDUTRIQUADPL
1.INCLiaugiurgimtulgimhatgim
1.EXCL—gitargittulgithatgit
2iáugaurgamtulgamhatgam
3-i/on/áidiardituldihatdi

Notes

  1. ↑ Sursurunga at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 168-172.
  3. ↑ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 168.
  4. 1 2 Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 169.
  5. ↑ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 169-170.
  6. ↑ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, pp. 170–171.
  7. 1 2 Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 171.
  8. 1 2 Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 172.
  9. ↑ King 2007, p. 5.
  10. ↑ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 164.
  11. 1 2 Samson, Hutchisson & Hutchisson 2018, p. 11.
  12. ↑ Hutchisson, Don (1986). "Sursurunga Pronouns and the Special Uses of Quadral Number". In Wiesemann, Ursula (ed.). Pronominal Systems. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. pp. 1–20.
  13. 1 2 Corbett, Greville G. (7 December 2000). "Meaning Distinctions". Number. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139164344.003. ISBN   0-521-64016-4.

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References


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