| Kobon | |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | [xombon],[k͡xombon],[kʰombon] |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Madang Province, Middle Ramu District, andWestern Highlands Province onKaironk River in lowerJimi River area north ofMt. Hagen |
Native speakers | 10,000 (2007)[1] 4,000 monolinguals (2007?)[2] |
Trans–New Guinea
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kpw |
| Glottolog | kobo1249 |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Kobon (pronounced[xombon],[k͡xombon] or[kʰombon]) is a language ofPapua New Guinea. It has somewhere around 90–120 verbs.[citation needed]
Kobon has apandanus language, spoken when harvestingkaruka.[3]
Kobon is spoken inMadang Province andWestern Highlands Province, north ofMount Hagen.
Monophthongal vowels are/ieɨəaou/, diphthongs are/ai̯au̯/./i/ and/u/ may be[jɪ] and[wʊ~ʍʊ] word-initially./ɨ/ ([ɨ~ɯ]) is written⟨ü⟩ and/ə/ ([ɜ~ɘ~ɪ]) is written⟨ö⟩.
Only/iau/ and the diphthongs occur word-initially, apart from the quotative particle, which is variably /a~e~o~ö/./eo/ occur syllable-initially within a word. All vowels (including the diphthongs) occur syllable-medially (in CVC syllables), syllable-finally and at the ends of words. Many vowel sequences occur, including some with identical vowels.
Kobon distinguishes analveolar lateral/l/, apalatal lateral/ʎ/, a subapicalretroflex lateral flap/𝼈 / (ɭ̆ ), and africative trill/r̝/, though the frication on the latter is variable.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Pharyngeal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ɲ⟨ñ⟩ | ŋ⟨ŋ⟩ | ||
| Obstruent | lenis | mb [p~b~mb~mpʰ]⟨b⟩ | nd [tʰ~d~nd~ntʰ]⟨d⟩ | ndʑ [dʑ~ɲdʑ~ɲtɕ]⟨j⟩ | ŋɡ [k~ɡ~ɣ~ŋɡ~ŋkʰ]⟨g⟩ | |
| fortis | f [f~ɸ~β~v~ʋ~p̚]⟨p⟩ | s⟨s⟩ | tɕ [tɕ~dʑ]⟨c⟩ | x [kʰ~kx~x~ɣ]⟨k⟩ | ||
| Lateral | l [l~ɬ]⟨l⟩ | ʎ⟨ɫ⟩ | ||||
| Rhotic | r [ɾ̝̊~ɾ̥~ɾ~r̝̊~r̥~r]⟨r⟩ | 𝼈 [ɭ~ɽ~ɽ̊]⟨ƚ⟩ | ||||
| Approximant | w⟨w⟩ | j⟨y⟩ | ħ [h]⟨h⟩ | |||
Voiced obstruents may be prenasalized after vowels, depending on the preceding consonant, and are voiceless word-initially. Liquids other than/ʎ/ tend towardfinal devoicing. For example, final/d/ is[ntʰ] and final/l/ tends to[ɬ]. (/w/ and/j/ do not occur in final position, while nasals and/ʎ/ retain voicing.) Voiceless consonants other than/s/ and/h/ are optionally voiced between vowels.
⟨ƚ⟩ is sublaminal retroflex. It has been described as a lateral flap,[𝼈 ].
All consonants occur syllable initially, though/ŋ/ only occurs word-initially in a single mimetic word. All consonants but/hjw/ occur syllable- and word-finally. Clusters occur in many (C)VC.CV(C) words, as well as initially in a handful of mostly monosyllabic CCV(C) words. Attested initial clusters are/bɽ,xɽ,fr,xl/.
| word-initially | intervocalically | word-finally | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ⟨r⟩ | ɾ̥~ɾ̝̊ | ɾ~r | ɾ̥~ɾ̝̊~r̥~r̝̊~ɾ~r |
| ⟨ƚ⟩ | ɽ | ɭ~ɽ~ɽ̊ | |
| ⟨l⟩ | l | ɬ~l | |
| ⟨k⟩ | kʰ~k͜x~x also ɣ intervocalically | ||
| ⟨p⟩ | ɸ~f | β~ʋ[5] (occas. v) | ɸ~p̚ |
| ⟨c⟩ | t͡ɕ | t͡ɕ~d͡ʑ | t͡ɕ |
| ⟨g⟩ | ɡ~k | ɡ~ɣ, ŋ͡ɡ | ŋ͡kʰ |
| ⟨j⟩ | d͡ʑ | d͡ʑ, ɲ͡d͡ʑ | ɲ͡t͡ɕ |
| ⟨d⟩ | d | d, n͜d | n͜tʰ (occas. tʰ) |
| ⟨b⟩ | b (occas. p) | b, m͜b | m͡pʰ |
Intervocalically, the lenis obstruents are oral[bddʑɡ~ɣ] when a nasal or another lenis obstruent occurs in the preceding syllable, and are prenasalized[mbndɲdʑŋɡ] otherwise, with some variability after/h/. They are often oral in a medial cluster after another consonant. Otherwise the allophones in the table above are largely infree variation.
Kobon has been written in theLatin alphabet for over 30 years. The special lettersƚ andɫ are used for the subapicalretroflex lateral flap andpalatal lateral, respectively.
5–15% of Kobon speakers are literate.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(December 2009) |
Kobon is asubject–object–verb language. Singular,dual, and plural are distinguished inpersonal pronouns andkinship terminology.
Like the other Kalam languages, Kobon is famous for having aclosed set of very small number ofverbs—perhaps less than 120 for the entire language.[citation needed] These verbs are combined other verbs, inserial verb constructions, and withnouns intophrases with specific meanings, much as one says "have dinner" rather than "dine" in English.
This makes for an interesting window intosemantics. One might expect that with a very limited set of verbs, their meanings would be quite general ashave, do, be andgo are in English. To a certain extent this is really the case, as there is for example only one verb ofperception. That is, the same verb is used forsee, hear, taste, smell, feel (both physically and emotionally),think, andunderstand (compare with "I see" for "I understand" in English). Another verb is used for making sound, whether it's speaking, singing, praying, crying, twigs breaking, rocks clattering, or water gurgling. However, some Kobon verbs are quite specific. There is one exception forsound; for example, there is a specific verb for calling a pig. There are also three verbs ofpouring, depending on whether the thing being poured is solid, liquid, or food; and there is even a verb that meansto quarter acassowary.
