Obokuitai language

Obokuitai (Obogwitai) is a Lakes Plain language of Papua, Indonesia. It is named after Obogwi village in East Central Mambermano District, Mamberamo Raya Regency.[3]

Obokuitai
Aliki
Native toIndonesia
RegionObogwi village in East Central Mambermano District, Mamberamo Raya Regency, Papua
Native speakers
120 (2000)[1]
Lakes Plain
  • Central
    • Obokuitai–Eritai
      • Obokuitai
Language codes
ISO 639-3afz
Glottologobok1239[2]

Obokuitai, Sikaritai, and Eritai constitute a dialect cluster.

Phonology

The following discussion is based on Jenison & Jenison (1991).[4]

Unusual phonological features of Obokuitai and other Lakes Plain languages are the complete lack of nasals, even allophones, and a series of extra high or fricativized vowels that developed from loss of a following stop consonant.[5] Obokuitai has one of the smallest phonemic inventories in the world, level with the Pirahã and Rotokas languages.

Consonants
Labial Coronal Velar Glottal
Stop b t d k
Fricative s h

The small consonant inventory is typical of Lakes Plain languages.

Vowels

Obokuitai has five vowels.

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid ɛ o
Low a

Tone

Like the other Lakes Plain languages, Obokuitai is tonal. L, H, and HL pitch contours occur on monosyllabic words. A phonological analysis of the tone system remains to be completed. However, the probable phonemic aspect of the tone is shown through the minimal triad kuik1 ‘rock’, kuik2 ‘insect’ (sp.) and kuik12 ‘lizard’ (sp.).[6]

Pronouns

Possessive pronouns in Obokuitai are:[7]

sgpl
1 i baèdo
2 dodeo
3 o

Verbs

Obokuitai has three verbal prefixes, which are:[7]:538

  • ha-: reciprocal
  • ke-: causative
  • be-: applicative

Some examples of verbs with the prefixes, as compared to the verb roots without them:[7]:538

  • didde ‘run’, ke-didde ‘send’
  • kúdde ‘talk’, be-kúdde ‘talk to someone’
  • tokoidde ‘throw’, be-tokoidde ‘throw directly at something’
  • kdidde ‘pull’, be-kdidde ‘pinch and pull back a bowstring with tautness’
  • tdaid ‘cut with a machete’, be-tdaid ‘poke, stab, inject’

There are two aspectual verbal suffixes:[7]:538

  • -kua: imperfective
  • -di ~ -ei ~ Ø: perfective

Particles

Final particles in Obokuitai:[7]:538–539

  • ke: exclamatory
  • ia: certainty
  • te ~ toi: imperative
  • bi: yes-no interrogative
  • se: information interrogative
  • beid: negative
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References
  1. Obokuitai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Obokuitai". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Indonesia languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
  4. Jenison, Scott; Jenison, Priscilla (1991). "Obokuitai phonology". Workpapers in Indonesian languages and cultures. 9: 69–90.
  5. Clouse, Duane (1997). "Toward a reconstruction and reclassification of the Lakes Plain languages of Irian Jaya". Papers in Papuan Linguistics. 2: 133–236.
  6. UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2009), The Representation of Tone, Larry M. Hyman, University of California, Berkeley. Available online at http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/documents/2009/Hyman_Representation_PLAR.pdf.
  7. Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
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