Sinaugoro language

Sinaugoro is an Austronesian language of Papua New Guinea. It is mainly spoken in the Rigo District of Central Province by some 15,000 people.[2] The language is closely related to Motu.

Sinaugoro
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionCentral Province
Native speakers
18,000 (2000 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3snc
Glottologsina1266

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
plain lab.
Plosive voiceless t k kʷ
voiced b d ɡ ɡʷ
Fricative voiceless f s
voiced v (ʝ) ɣ ɣʷ
Nasal m n
Rhotic r
Approximant l (j)
  • /i/ is heard as a glide [j] when in word-initial position before a vowel, or within a syllable or syllable-initial onset.
  • /ɣ/ is heard as palatal [ʝ] when before front vowels.[3]

Vowels
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a
  • Sounds /e, o/ are heard as [ɛ, ɔ] when in stressed syllables, or when the nucleus of the following syllable is /a/ or /o/.[3]

Writing system
Sinaugoro alphabet[4]
abdef gḡḡwik kwlmno rstuv

Grammar

Sinaugoro is an agglutinative language with ergative alignment and subject–object–verb (SOV) word order.[5] Number is marked explicitly on the verb and freely within the noun phrase, but is not marked on the noun itself. A morphological distinction is made in Sinaugoro between the possession of alienable and inalienable nouns, and then between the alienable possession of edible and inedible objects.[6]

Verbal indexing of person and number in Sinaugoro makes freestanding personal pronouns optional. These are given below, displaying a distinction between inclusive and exclusive.

Personal pronouns in Sinaugoro[7]
SG
1SGau
2SGgoi
3SGgia
PL
1PL.INCgita
1PL.EXCgai
2PLgomi
3PLgia

Notes
  1. Sinaugoro at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Tauberschmidt (1999), p. 1
  3. Tauberschmidt 1999, pp. 6–9.
  4. SIL 1992.
  5. Tauberschmidt (1999), p. 2
  6. Tauberschmidt (1999), p. 14
  7. Tauberschmidt (1999), p. 16-17

References
  • Tauberschmidt, Gerhard (1999). A Grammar of Sinaugoro: an Austronesian language of the Central Province of Papua New Guinea (PDF). Pacific Linguistics Series C, Volume 143. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-C143. hdl:1885/146187. ISBN 0-85883-490-1.
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