Sop language

Sop (also Sob, Usino) is a Rai Coast language spoken in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea by approximately 2,500 people.

Sop
Sob
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Madang Province
Native speakers	2,300 (2003)
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Madang Rai Coast Peka Sop
Language codes
ISO 639-3	urw
Glottolog	sopp1247

The Sob language has been labelled under several different names. Among the names are Usino, Usina, Sopu, and Igoi. Usino is the name of one of the villages and the name used for the government station. The speakers of this language do not recognize the name Usino as a name for their language, but use the endonym Sob.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Apical	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	p b	t d		k ɡ
Fricative	f	s
Nasal	m	n
Approximant	w		j
Flap		ɾ

• Where symbols appear in pairs the one to the left represents a voiceless consonant
• t, and d represent dental/alveolar/post-alveolar consonants, while n is only alveolar

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	ɯ <ü> u
Mid	e	o
Low		ɑ

Syllabification

The canonical syllable profile of Sob is (C)V(C). Thus, vowels are required to have a nuclear vowel, and may optionally have an onset and/or coda. The overwhelming majority of syllables have an onset in Sob, forming the unmarked CV shape. Complex onsets and complex codas are disallowed for markedness.

Syllable types in Sob

	Single Syllable	#__$	$__$	$__#
V	e 'or'	e.ge 'eye'	keb fu.gi.a.ga 'light from fire'	fi.o 'fog'
CV	mi 'louse'	ta.ba 'head'	u.di.ge 'sand'	su.be 'mouth'
CVC	nur 'nose'	keb kaj 'water snake'	a.büs.kaj 'old woman'	si.bim 'stomach'
VC	am 'what'	ag.fe.re.a.ga 'he leads'	***	gi.tu.ar 'dusk'

Personal pronouns

	Singular	Plural
1st	ye	sini (exclusive); sige (inclusive)
2nd	nag	nini; ninag
3rd	nu	nini

External links

• Rosetta Project: Sop Swadesh list