Tobati language

Tobati, or Yotafa, is an Austronesian language spoken in Jayapura Bay in Papua province, Indonesia. It was once thought to be a Papuan language.^[1] Notably, Tobati displays a very rare object–subject–verb word order.^[2]

Tobati
Yotafa
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Papua
Ethnicity	Tobati
Native speakers	100 (2007)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic North New Guinea Sarmi – Jayapura Bay Jayapura Bay Tobati
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tti
Glottolog	toba1266
ELP	Tobati
Tobati is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m			n	ɲ	ŋ[a]
Stop	voiceless				t	c	k
	voiced	b		d		d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	ɸ	f		s	ʃ	h[b]
	voiced						ɣ~ɰ
Approximant		w				j
Rhotic					r

1. Before a vowel realized as [ŋg], otherwise nasalizes the preceding vowel.^[2]
2. Displays free variation as [h~ɦ~x~ɣ].

/f/ also shows allophony as [p]. However, it does not behave as a stop (see below).

Tobati has a five-vowel system of /a e i o u/, realized as /a ɛ i ɔ ʊ/ in closed syllables.

Phonotactics

Tobati permits three consonants in the onset, and at most a single consonant or a nasal-stop cluster in the coda.

Nasal-stop clusters only permit a nasal and a stop of the same place of articulation. For the /nd/ sequence, /n/ becomes dental [n̪]. Neither the bilabial, consisting of /b/ and the /f/ allophone [p], nor palatal nasal-stop clusters distinguish voice (i.e. they are [pm~bm] and [cɲ~d͡ʒɲ] respectively). The /Nk/ sequence voices to [ŋg].^[2]