Sursurunga language

Sursurunga is an Oceanic language of New Ireland.

Phonology

Consonants

• /p/ has two allophones: [pʷ] syllable initially and [p̚] syllable finally.^[3]
• /t̪/ has two allophones: [t̪] syllable initially and [t̪]~[t̪͆] syllable finally.^[4]
• /k/ has two allophones: [k] syllable initially and [k]~[k̚]~[kʰ] syllable finally.^[4]
• Voiced stops /b/ [bʷ], /d/, and /g/ only occur syllable initially. Plain and prenasalized voiced stops (i.e., [ᵐbʷ], [ⁿd], [ᵑg]) are in free variation word initially. Voiced stops are nasalized word-medially between vowels and after non-nasal consonants. [ɖ], a "voiced alveolar slightly retroflexed stop" is also heard word medially.^[5]
• /s/ is [s] syllable initially and finally.^[6]
• /h/ is a "voiceless vocoid occurring word finally following a voiced vocoid of the same quality."^[7]
• /m/ is [mʷ] syllable initially and [m] syllable finally. It becomes [mʷ] after a rounded vowel.^[7]
• /l/ is /lʲ/ initially and finally.^[8]
• Semivowels /w/ and /j/ only occur syllable initially.^[8]

Vowels

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]

⟨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.

Notes

References

• Hutchisson, Don; Hutchisson, Sharon (1975). "A preliminary phonology of Sursurunga". In Loving, Richard (ed.). Phonologies of five Austronesian languages. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 163–202.
• King, Phil (2007). An Acoustic Description of Central Vowels in Three Austronesian Languages of New Ireland (Report). SIL Electronic Working Papers. Vol. 2007–005.
• Samson, Benroi; Hutchisson, Sharon; Hutchisson, Don (2018). Sálán má Worwor Talas uri tan Kuir Wor Sursurunga [The meanings and explanations of Sursurunga words]. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 978-9980-0-4287-3.