Loniu is an Austronesian language spoken along the southern coast of Los Negros Island in the Manus Province, immediately east of Manus Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. Loniu is spoken in the villages of Loniu and Lolak, and there are estimated to be 450–500 native speakers, although some live in other Manus villages or on the mainland of Papua New Guinea.[2]
| Loniu | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Los Negros Island, Manus Province |
Native speakers | 780 (2000)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | los |
| Glottolog | loni1238 |
Loniu generally fits with most of the observations made about Oceanic languages, specifically the Admiralty Islands languages.[3][4][5][6][7] The six morphosyntactic features of 'Type B' Oceanic Languages (which include the Admiralties languages) as noted by Ross are found in Loniu. The language is essentially SVO and contains prepositions.
Phonology
editConsonant Phonemes
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | t | k | ||
| Rounded stop | pw | ||||
| Affricate | tʃ | ||||
| Fricative | s | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Rounded nasal | mw | ||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||
| Approximant | w | j |
Vowel Phonemes
edit| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid tense | e | o | |
| Mid lax | ɛ | ɔ |
References
editNotes
edit- ^ Loniu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Hamel (1994)
- ^ Capell, Arthur (1971). The Austronesian languages of Australian New Guinea. The Hague: Mouton. pp. 240–340.
- ^ Capell, Arthur (1976). Features of Austronesian languages in the New Guinea area in general in contrast with other Austronesian languages of Melanesia. Canberra.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Capell, Arthur (1976). General picture of Austronesian languages, New Guinea area. Canberra.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Healey, Alan (1976). Austronesian languages: Admiralty Islands area. Canberra.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Ross, M.D. (1988). "Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of Western Melanesia". Pacific Linguistics. C-98.
Sources
edit- Hamel, Patricia J. (1993). "Serial verbs in Loniu and an evolving preposition". Oceanic Linguistics. 32 (1): 111–132. doi:10.2307/3623099. JSTOR 3623099.
- Hamel, Patricia J. (1994). A Grammar and Lexicon of Loniu, Papua New Guinea. Pacific Linguistics Series C-103. Canberra: The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-C103. hdl:1885/145798.
External links
edit- Kaipuleohone's Robert Blust collection includes written and recorded materials from Loniu
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