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| Rotokas | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Bougainville |
Native speakers | (4,300 cited 1981)[1] |
North Bougainville
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin (Rotokas alphabet) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | roo |
| Glottolog | roto1249 |
| 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. | |
Rotokas is aNorth Bougainville language spoken by about 4,320 people onBougainville Island inPapua New Guinea.
Central Rotokas is most notable for its extremely small phonemicconsonantal inventory, which lacksphonemic nasals.
According to Allen and Hurd (1963), there are three identified dialects: Central Rotokas ("Rotokas Proper"), Aita Rotokas, and Pipipaia; with a further dialect spoken in Atsilima (Atsinima) village with an unclear status.[3]
The Central dialect of Rotokas possesses one of the world's smallest phonemic consonantal inventories.[4]: 271 Central Rotokas has avowel length distinction between long and short,[4]: 273 but otherwise lacks distinctivesuprasegmental features such as tone, and probably stress.[5]
Whereas Central Rotokas has only six consonantal phonemes, Aita Rotokas has nine; Aita adds phonemic nasals (e.g. this example of a minimal pair,/buta/'time' vs./muta/'taste'[6]: 208 ). The Central dialect's limited inventory likely arose by collapsing the phonemic distinction between nasals and non-nasals.[6]: 206
Nasals in Aita always correspond to voiced plosives in Central (e.g. "tree" isemaoto in Aita andebaoto in Central[6]: 208 ), but voiced plosives in Central can correspond to either nasals or voiced plosives in Aita.[6]: 207
Consonants occur in threeplaces of articulation:bilabial,alveolar, andvelar, each with a voiced and an unvoiced variant.[6]: 207 The three voiced phonemes each have wide allophonic variation, with the allophonic sets[β,b,m],[ɾ,n,l,d], and[ɡ,ɣ,ŋ].[4]: 274 This makes the choice of symbols for phonemes somewhat arbitrary.[6]: 207
Nasals are rarely heard. They will sometimes be misused when speakers try to pronounce English words (e.g. "bye-bye" being pronounced[maemae]), or when trying to imitate a foreigner speaking Rotokas (even if they were not used by the foreigner).[4]: 274
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | p | t | k |
| Voiced | b | d | ɡ |
The Aita dialect has nine consonant phonemes, with a three-way distinction required between voiced, voiceless, and nasal consonants.[6]: 207
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | p | t | k |
| Voiced | b | d | ɡ |
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ |
Vowels in the Central dialect may be long or short, but the Aita dialect seems to have no length distinction.[6]: 209
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i (iː) | u (uː) | |
| Close-mid | e (eː) | o (oː) | |
| Open | a (aː) |
The Rotokas orthography uses 12 letters of the Latin alphabet, with nodiacritics orligatures. The letters area,e,g,i, k,o,p, r, s,t,u andv. Long vowels are written as doubled. /t/ is written as s before i and t elsewhere and has also been written with an orthography based on the IPA symbols for its phonemes.[6]: 207
Stress is probably not phonemic.[5] Words with 2 or 3 syllables are stressed on the initial syllable; those with 4 are stressed on the first and third; and those with 5 or more on the antepenultimate. This is complicated by long vowels, and there are exceptions to the third rule among some verb constructions.[7]
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Typologically, Rotokas is a fairly typicalverb-final language, withadjectives and demonstrative pronouns preceding thenouns they modify, andpostpositions following. Althoughadverbs are fairly free in their ordering, they tend to precede the verb, as in the following example:
iava
ururupa-vira
closed-ADV
osirei-toarei avuka-va iava ururupa-vira tou-pa-si-veira
eye-MASC.DU old-FEM.SG POST closed-ADV be-PROG-2.DU.MASC-HAB
The old woman's eyes are shut.
Selected basic vocabulary items in Rotokas:[8]
| gloss | Rotokas |
|---|---|
| bird | kokioto |
| blood | revasiva |
| bone | kerua |
| breast | rorooua |
| ear | uvareoua |
| eat | aio |
| egg | takura |
| eye | osireito |
| fire | tuitui |
| give | vate |
| go | ava |
| ground | rasito |
| hair | orui |
| hear | uvu |
| leg | kokotoa |
| louse | iirui |
| man | oidato |
| moon | kekira |
| name | vaisia |
| one | katai |
| road, path | raiva |
| see | keke |
| sky | vuvuiua |
| stone | aveke |
| sun | ravireo |
| tongue | arevuoto |
| tooth | reuri |
| tree | evaova |
| two | erao |
| water | uukoa |
| woman | avuo |
| No. | Rotokas[9] | Translation (English) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Vo tuariri rovoaia Pauto vuvuiua ora rasito pura-rovoreva. Vo osia rasito raga toureva, uva viapau oavu avuvai. Oire Pauto urauraaro tuepaepa aue ivaraia uukovi. Vara rutuia rupa toupaiva. Oa iava Pauto oisio puraroepa, Aviavia rorove. Oire aviavia rorova. | In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The spirit of God was hovering over the water. Then God said, "Let there be light!" So there was light. |
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