Rotokas language: Difference between revisions
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Latest revision as of 19:32, 19 May 2025
Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:More footnotes needed Template:Infobox language
Rotokas is a North Bougainville language spoken by about 4,320 people on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea.
Central Rotokas is most notable for its extremely small phonemic consonantal inventory, which lacks phonemic nasals.
Dialects
[edit]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.<ref>Allen and Hurd, 1963. Cited in Template:Harvtxt: "it appears to be heavily influenced by contact with Keriaka"</ref>
Phonology
[edit]The Central dialect of Rotokas possesses one of the world's smallest phonemic consonantal inventories.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Rp Central Rotokas has a vowel length distinction between long and short,<ref name=":1" />Template:Rp but otherwise lacks distinctive suprasegmental features such as tone, and probably stress.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref>
Consonants
[edit]Whereas Central Rotokas has only six consonantal phonemes, Aita Rotokas has nine; Aita adds phonemic nasals (e.g. this example of a minimal pair, Template:IPA Template:Gloss vs. Template:IPA Template:Gloss<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Rp). The Central dialect's limited inventory likely arose by collapsing the phonemic distinction between nasals and non-nasals.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp
Nasals in Aita always correspond to voiced plosives in Central (e.g. "tree" is Template:Lang in Aita and Template:Lang in Central<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp), but voiced plosives in Central can correspond to either nasals or voiced plosives in Aita.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp
Central Rotokas
[edit]Consonants occur in three places of articulation: bilabial, alveolar, and velar, each with a voiced and an unvoiced variant.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp The three voiced phonemes each have wide allophonic variation, with the allophonic sets Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA.<ref name=":1" />Template:Rp This makes the choice of symbols for phonemes somewhat arbitrary.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp
Nasals are rarely heard. They will sometimes be misused when speakers try to pronounce English words (e.g. "bye-bye" being pronounced Template:IPA), or when trying to imitate a foreigner speaking Rotokas (even if they were not used by the foreigner).<ref name=":1" />Template:Rp
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link |
| Voiced | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link |
- In the 1960s, Template:IPA was described as being Template:IPA before Template:IPA.<ref name=":1" />Template:Rp Later research in the 2000s found this to no longer be true, possibly due to widespread bilingualism with Tok Pisin.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp
Aita Rotokas
[edit]The Aita dialect has nine consonant phonemes, with a three-way distinction required between voiced, voiceless, and nasal consonants.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp
- Template:IPA varies between Template:IPA and Template:IPA.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp
- Template:IPA is chiefly realized as Template:IPA.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp
- Template:IPA is Template:IPA before Template:IPA.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp
Vowels
[edit]Vowels in the Central dialect may be long or short, but the Aita dialect seems to have no length distinction.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp
Orthography
[edit]The Rotokas orthography uses 12 letters of the Latin alphabet, with no diacritics or ligatures. The letters are a, e, g, i, k, o, p, r, s, t, u and v. 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.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp
Stress
[edit]Stress is probably not phonemic.<ref name=":2" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Grammar
[edit]Template:Expand section Typologically, Rotokas is a fairly typical verb-final language, with adjectives and demonstrative pronouns preceding the nouns they modify, and postpositions following. Although adverbs are fairly free in their ordering, they tend to precede the verb, as in the following example:
Vocabulary
[edit]Selected basic vocabulary items in Rotokas:<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
gloss Rotokas bird Template:Lang blood Template:Lang bone Template:Lang breast Template:Lang ear Template:Lang eat Template:Lang egg Template:Lang eye Template:Lang fire Template:Lang give Template:Lang go Template:Lang ground Template:Lang hair Template:Lang hear Template:Lang leg Template:Lang louse Template:Lang man Template:Lang moon Template:Lang name Template:Lang one Template:Lang road, path Template:Lang see Template:Lang sky Template:Lang stone Template:Lang sun Template:Lang tongue Template:Lang tooth Template:Lang tree Template:Lang two Template:Lang water Template:Lang woman Template:Lang
Sample text
[edit]| No. | Rotokas<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | Translation (English) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Template:Lang | 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. |
Footnotes
[edit]References
[edit]- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book (Unpublished manuscript)
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book (Brief grammatical sketch)
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book