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.^[2] The Siar people keep themselves sustained and nourished by fishing and gardening.^[3] The native people call their language ep warwar anun dat, which means 'our language'.^[4]

Siar
Lak
ep warwar anun dat
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	New Ireland Province
Native speakers	(2,100 cited 2000 census)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Meso-Melanesian (St George linkage) Siar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sjr
Glottolog	siar1238

Phonology

Siar-Lak has fifteen consonants and seven vowels.^[3]

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	e̝		o̝
Mid	e		o
Low		a

The vowel /e̝/ can be thought to be pronounced in between the high vowel /i/ and the mid vowel /e/, as well as /o̝/ being in between the high vowel /u/ and the mid vowel /o/, according to native speakers.^[3]

Stress and phonotactics

Stress is placed on the last syllable in each word. Examples of words broken down into syllables and translated include:^[3]

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 its vocabulary: V (vowel), VC (vowel-consonant), CV (consonant-vowel), and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant). Some examples include:^[3]

		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'

^[3]

Orthography

Siar-Lak is written in the Latin script. Most letters correspond directly to a single phoneme and vice versa. However, the consonant phoneme /φ/ is spelled ⟨f⟩ at the start of a word, ⟨h⟩ at the end of a syllable, and not spelled at all when it is not pronounced. When a word-final /i/ needs to be distinguished from /j/, it is spelled ⟨ii⟩. /e̝/ and /o̝/ are spelled ⟨é⟩ and ⟨ó⟩ respectively. /w/ and /j/ are spelled ⟨u⟩ and ⟨i⟩ in syllable codas.^[3]

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

^[3]

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

Pronouns

Independent pronouns^[3]

		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

DIR-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.'^[3]

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.