| Sulka | |
| Region: | eastern Pomio District, East New Britain Province |
| Coordinates: | -5.2758°N 152.0923°W |
| Speakers: | 2,500 |
| Date: | 1991 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Family: | Language isolate |
| Iso3: | sua |
| Glotto: | sulk1246 |
| Glottorefname: | Sulka |
| States: | Papua New Guinea |
Sulka is a language isolate of New Britain, Papua New Guinea.[1] In 1991, there were 2,500 speakers in eastern Pomio District, East New Britain Province.[2] Villages include Guma (-5.2758°N 152.0923°W) in East Pomio Rural LLG.[3] 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.[4]
Sulka is spoken along the coastal region of Wide Bay, on the Southern coast of the Gazelle Peninsula,[5] 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.[6] Reesink (2005) reports on some Sulka speakers who have intermingled in neighboring villages with speakers of other languages such as Mali, southeast of Kokopo.
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).[7] 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.[8]
Sulka has some influence from the Mengen language.[4]
Over 3,000 to 3,500 years ago, the linguistic ancestors of Sulka speakers arrived in the Papua New Guinea area.
Although the history of the language is not well known, it may display a mixture of Oceanic and Papuan language traits.[9] 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.[10]
The phonological system of Sulka comprises 28 contrasting segments, fourteen consonants, and seven vowels. 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.
Sulka consonants are:[4]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiced | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | ||||
| voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Nasal | 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/ | |||
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
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]. 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'. The sounds [o] and [u] often fluctuate with each other as in the example of ' 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 | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
| long | pronounced as /link/ː | pronounced as /link/ː | |
| Mid | short | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ |
| long | eː | oː, ɔː | |
| Open | short | pronounced as /link/ | |
| long | aː |
| IPA | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| [hip] | 'tree wallaby' | |
| [hep] | 'bed' | |
| [hɛp] | 'make fire' | |
| [lul] | 'flow' | |
| [lol] | 'carry (object)' | |
| [yok] | 'namesake' | |
| [yɔk] | 'taro' | |
| [ko] | 'there' | |
| [kat] | 'again' |
| IPA | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| [iːs] | 'able, enough' | |
| [pkɔːn] | 'hornbill' | |
| [harpeːt] | 'fall' | |
| [βuːt] | 'fall (lightly)' | |
| [poːm] | 'push' | |
| [naːk] | 'grave mound' |
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):
Selected Sulka nouns showing singular and plural forms (Tharp 1996: 161-163):[11]
| gloss | singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ‘part’ | mhe | mhetor | |
| ‘vagina’ | kha | khator | |
| ‘house’ | rɨk | rɨktor | |
| ‘hole’ | nho | nhotor | |
| ‘cliff’ | vɨk | vɨktor | |
| ‘colorful belt’ | lɨp | lɨptor | |
| ‘knife’ | kom | komtok | |
| ‘water’ | yi | yitok | |
| ‘heart’ | ngaung | ngaungtok | |
| ‘nose’ | vorngap | vrongtok | |
| ‘green lizard’ | gut | gɨtok | |
| ‘song’ | kni | knituk | |
| ‘head’ | lpek | lpetuk | |
| ‘morning’ | rot | ruteik | |
| ‘string bag’ | psang | vasngeik | |
| ‘family’ | valngan | valngneik | |
| ‘charcoal’ | valang | valngeik | |
| ‘finger nail’ | pga | pgeik | |
| ‘small garden plot’ | sar | sareik | |
| ‘vein’ | spang | sapngeik | |
| ‘shoulder’ | volha | volheik | |
| ‘sky’ | volkha | volkheik | |
| ‘mountain’ | vul | vleik | |
| ‘container’ | kolhi | kolheik | |
| ‘wild pitpit’ | ngaiphe | ngaiphol | |
| ‘snake’ | vim | vimol | |
| ‘bat’ | viɨng | viɨngol | |
| ‘disciplining stick’ | khap | khapol | |
| ‘fruit’ | mit | mitol | |
| ‘mushroom’ | tling | tinngol | |
| ‘fish’ | slang | sinngol | |
| ‘meat’ | vothek | vothol | |
| ‘place’ | ngaekam | ngaekmol | |
| ‘roof of mouth’ | kning | kningol | |
| ‘reed’ | psiɨng | psiɨngol | |
| ‘bird’ | ngaining | iningol | |
| ‘edge’ | ngaiting | itngol | |
| ‘monster’ | ngainkuo | inkuol | |
| ‘sister’s brother’ | lu | rlok | |
| ‘mountain’ | vul | vlik | |
| ‘coconut leaf’ | kriar | kerik | |
| ‘forehead’ | lein | leinik | |
| ‘kina shell’ | ngaek | igik | |
| ‘fetish’ | tarmek | tarmki | |
| ‘lobster’ | hivotek | hivotgi | |
| ‘coss-buai’ | rongtep | rongtvi | |
| ‘root’ | kavgot | kvukti | |
| ‘lake’ | ngaenker | enekri | |
| ‘lime’ | ngaiker | ikri | |
| ‘anger’ | ngaesik | resik | |
| ‘ear’ | ngaela | rela | |
| ‘door’ | ngaegot | relot | |
| ‘job’ | ngaeha | reha | |
| ‘wing’ | ngaeho | reho | |
| ‘road’ | ngaelot | relot | |
| ‘sound’ | ngaeti | reti | |
| ‘type of kaukau’ | ngoye | roye | |
| ‘brawl’ | ngaus | raus | |
| ‘brother’s brother’ | nopia | rnopeik | |
| ‘father’s daughter’ | kvɨk | rkvɨk | |
| ‘father’s father’ | poi | rpoik | |
| ‘sister’s brother’ | lu | rlok | |
| ‘brother’s sister’ | etem | rotmik | |
| ‘father’s son’ | hal | rhol | |
| ‘reef’ | kamngal | komngol | |
| ‘tree’ | ho | hi | |
| ‘skin’ | ptaik | ptek | |
| ‘hair’ | ngiris | ngɨris | |
| ‘grass skirt’ | nhep | nhek | |
| ‘blood’ | ɨndiɨl | ɨriɨl | |
| ‘yam’ | tou | sngu | |
| ‘coconut’ | ksiɨ | ges | |
| ‘speech’ | rere | rhek | |
| ‘shell money’ | pek | kirpik | |
| ‘ground’ | mmie | marhok | |
| ‘person’ | mhel | mia | |
| ‘road’ | ngaelaut | nghek |
| Free! | Perfective Realis | Future Irrealis | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1SG | dok | ko-~ku- | ||
| 2SG | yen | i- | ||
| 3SG | ëën | t- | ||
| 1PL | mor | ngo-t- | ||
| 2PL | muk | mu-tu | ||
| 3PL | mar | nga-t- | ||
| 1DU | muo | mo-t- | ||
| 2DU | moe | më-t- | ||
| 3DU | men | men-t-ngen-t |
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 .
Habitual aspect and conditional mood utilize the same forms as the irrealis, both for and . In contrast, all of the other forms have more in common with the future pronouns because they also lack -t. Below, see examples of the habitual and the conditional, respectively:
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".
| 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 3SG | Lacks 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 |
Languages of the World
. 22nd . Eberhard . David M. . Simons . Gary F. . Fennig . Charles D. . 2019 . Dallas . SIL International.