Siar-Lak language

Not to be confused with Lak language.

Siar, also known as Lak, Lamassa, or Likkilikki, is an Austronesian language spoken in New Ireland Province in the southern island point of Papua New Guinea. Lak is in the Patpatar-Tolai sub-group, which then falls under the New Ireland-Tolai group in the Western Oceanic language, a sub-group within the Austronesian family. The Siar people keep themselves sustained and nourished by fishing and gardening. The native people call their language ep warwar anun dat, which means 'our language'.

Siar
Lak
ep warwar anun dat
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	New Ireland Province
Native speakers	2,100 (2000 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Meso-Melanesian (St George linkage) Siar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sjr
Glottolog	siar1238

Phonology

Siar-Lak contains fifteen consonants, and five vowels, which does not include the mid-high vowel pronunciations of /é/ and /ó/.

Consonant phonemes

		Bilabial	Dental- Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d		g
Fricative		ɸ	s
Lateral			l
Trill			r
Glide		w		j

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid-high	ẹ		ọ
Mid	e		o
Low		a

The vowel /ẹ/ can be thought to be pronounced in between the high vowel /I/ and the mid vowel /E/, as well as /ọ/ being in between the high vowel /U/ and the mid vowel /O/, according to the native people in Papua New Guinea. ẹ can be written as é, and ọ can also be written as ỏ. Knowing which vowel is used when writing is critical, as two words that are similar can have completely different meanings. For example, rowoi means to 'carry in arms', while rówói means 'to fly'. Also, toh has a meaning of 'to be able', while tóh means 'sugarcane'.

Stress and phonotactics

Stress is placed on the last syllable in each word. Examples of words broken down into syllables and translated include:

Siar-Lak	English
mam.su.ai	'sneeze'
ar.ngas	'mountain peak'
far.bón	'praise'
fet.rar	'young woman'

Syllable structures

Siar Lak contains four different types of syllable patterns in their word vocabulary, which include V(vowel), VC(vowel consonant), CV(consonant vowel), and CVC(consonant vowel consonant). Some examples include:

		Siar Lak	English
V		u	'you'
		a.im	'to plant'
		a.i.nói	'to fill'
VC		ep	'article'
		ar.ngas	'mountain'
		la.un	'to live'
CV		ma	'now'
		kó.bót	'morning'
		ka.bu.suk	'my nose'
		la.tu	'tomorrow'
CVC		póp	'puddle'
		gósgós	'to dance'
		la.man.tin	'great'
		ka.kau	'to crawl'

Numerical system

Numbers 1–10

Siar	English
i tik	One
i ru	Two
i tól	Three
i at	Four
i lim	Five
i won	Six
i is	Seven
i wol	Eight
i siwok	Nine
sanguli or i tik ep bónót	Ten

Numbers 10–100

Siar	English
i tik ep bónót	Ten
i ru ru bónót	Twenty
i tól ep bónót	Thirty
i at ep bónót	Forty
i lim ep bónót	Fifty
i won ep bónót	Sixty
i is ep bónót	Seventy
i wol ep bónót	Eighty
i siwok ep bónót	Ninety
i tik ep mar	One hundred

Orthography

Orthography is the way words are written, using the appropriate letters from a specific language while following usage rules. If the consonant phoneme /φ/ is used at the beginning of a word, that word starts with an f, but if it is found at the end of a word, it is then replaced with the letter h. An example of this is ep φun, which makes the phrase ep fun, meaning 'banana (plant)', but when it is found at the end of a word, as in ep yaφ, it becomes ep yah, meaning 'fire'.

Pronouns

Independent pronouns

		Singular	Dual	Trial/Paucal	Plural
1st person	exclusive	ya(u)/ a	mara(u)	mató~matól	mét
	inclusive		dara(u)	datól	dat
2nd person		u	aura(u)	amtól	amat
3rd person	Personal	i	dira(u)	diat	dit
	Impersonal				di
	Inanimate, mass				in

Example sentence:

Yau,

1S

a

1S

rak

want

al

1S.POT

an

at

ka-sai

-west

an

at

Kokopo.

Kokopo

Yau, a rak al an ka-sai an Kokopo.

1S 1S want 1S.POT at DIR-west at Kokopo

'As for me, I want to go to Kokopo.'

Verb phrases

Two types of verb phrases include intransitive and transitive verbs. An intransitive verb is used when there is no direct object, while a transitive verb is used when there is a direct object action taking place. An intransitive verb for 'eat' would be angan, while a transitive verb for 'eat' would be yan.

References

• Rowe, Karen (2005). Siar-Lak Grammar Essentials. Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages 50. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
• Lean, G. A. (1991). Counting systems of Papua New Guinea: Volume 1: New Ireland Province (2nd ed., Vol. 1). Lae, Papua New Guinea: Department of Mathematics and Statistics Papua New Guinea University of Technology.
• Frowein, Friedel Martin (2011). A grammar of Siar, an Oceanic language of New Ireland province, Papua New Guinea (Ph.D. thesis). La Trobe University. hdl:1959.9/529829.