Sursurunga language

Sursurunga
RegionNew Ireland
Native speakers
(3,000 cited 1991)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3sgz
Glottologsurs1246

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
  • /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

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]

⟨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]
SG DU TRI QUAD PL
1.INCL iau giur gimtul gimhat gim
1.EXCL — gitar gittul githat git
2 iáu gaur gamtul gamhat gam
3 -i/on/ái diar ditul dihat di

Notes

  1. ^ Sursurunga at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 168-172.
  3. ^ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 168.
  4. ^ a b Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 169.
  5. ^ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 169-170.
  6. ^ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, pp. 170–171.
  7. ^ a b Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 171.
  8. ^ a b Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 172.
  9. ^ King 2007, p. 5.
  10. ^ Hutchisson & Hutchisson 1975, p. 164.
  11. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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.

References


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