Sursurunga language explained
Sursurunga is an Oceanic language of New Ireland.
Phonology
Consonants
!! Bilabial !! Dental !! Alveolar !! Palatal !! Velar !! Glottal | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | | | pronounced as /ink/ | |
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| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ | |
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| Fricative | | | pronounced as /ink/ | | | pronounced as /ink/ |
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| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ | |
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| Trill | | | pronounced as /ink/ | | | |
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| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | | | |
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- pronounced as /link/ has two allophones: pronounced as /link/ syllable initially and pronounced as /link/ syllable finally.
- pronounced as /link/ has two allophones: pronounced as /link/ syllable initially and pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ syllable finally.
- pronounced as /link/ has two allophones: pronounced as /link/ syllable initially and pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ syllable finally.
- Voiced stops pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/ only occur syllable initially. Plain and prenasalized voiced stops (i.e., pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/) are in free variation word initially. Voiced stops are nasalized word-medially between vowels and after non-nasal consonants. pronounced as /link/, a "voiced alveolar slightly retroflexed stop" is also heard word medially.
- pronounced as /link/ is pronounced as /link/ syllable initially and finally.
- pronounced as /link/ is a "voiceless vocoid occurring word finally following a voiced vocoid of the same quality."
- pronounced as /link/ is pronounced as /link/ syllable initially and pronounced as /link/ syllable finally. It becomes pronounced as /link/ after a rounded vowel.
- pronounced as /link/ is pronounced as /link/ initially and finally.
- Semivowels pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ only occur syllable initially.
Vowels
Vowels! !! Front !! Central !! Back| High | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ |
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| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ |
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| Low | | pronounced as /ink/ | | |
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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).
(ng) is the velar nasal pronounced as /link/ and (á) is the schwa.
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;[1] 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.[2] 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! !! !! !! !! !! | . | iau | giur | gimtul | gimhat | gim |
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| . | | gitar | gittul | githat | git |
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| iáu | gaur | gamtul | gamhat | gam |
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| -i/on/ái | diar | ditul | dihat | di | |
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References
Notes and References
- Book: Hutchisson, Don . 1986 . Sursurunga Pronouns and the Special Uses of Quadral Number . Wiesemann . Ursula . Pronominal Systems . 1–20 . Tübingen . Gunter Narr.
- Book: Corbett, Greville G. . Number . Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics . 7 December 2000 . Cambridge University Press . 0-521-64016-4 . Meaning Distinctions . 10.1017/CBO9781139164344.003.
