| Tobati | |
| Nativename: | Yotafa |
| States: | Indonesia |
| Region: | Papua |
| Ethnicity: | Tobati |
| Speakers: | 100 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian |
| Fam3: | Oceanic |
| Fam4: | Western Oceanic |
| Fam5: | North New Guinea |
| Fam6: | Sarmi – Jayapura Bay |
| Fam7: | Jayapura Bay |
| Iso3: | tti |
| Glotto: | toba1266 |
| Glottorefname: | Tobati |
| Map: | Lang Status 40-SE.svg |
Tobati, or Yotafa, is an Austronesian language spoken in Jayapura Bay in Papua province, Indonesia. It was once thought to be a Papuan language. Notably, Tobati displays a very rare object–subject–verb word order.[1]
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
pronounced as //f// also shows allophony as pronounced as /[p]/. However, it does not behave as a stop (see below).
Tobati has a five-vowel system of /pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link//, realized as /pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link// in closed syllables.
Tobati permits three consonants in the onset, and at most a single consonant or a nasal-stop cluster in the coda.
Nasal-stop clusters only permit a nasal and a stop of the same place of articulation. For the pronounced as //nd// sequence, pronounced as //n// becomes dental [{{IPA link|n̪}}]. Neither the bilabial, consisting of pronounced as //b// and the pronounced as //f// allophone pronounced as /[p]/, nor palatal nasal-stop clusters distinguish voice (i.e. they are pronounced as /[pm~bm]/ and pronounced as /[cɲ~d͡ʒɲ]/ respectively). The pronounced as //Nk// sequence voices to pronounced as /[ŋg]/.