Rotokas language

According to Allen and Hurd (1963), there are three identified dialects: Central Rotokas ("Rotokas Proper"), Aita Rotokas, and Pipipaia; with a further dialect spoken in Atsilima (Atsinima) village with an unclear status.Allen and Hurd, 1963. Cited in {{harvtxt|Robinson|2006|p=206}}: "it appears to be heavily influenced by contact with Keriaka"

The Central dialect of Rotokas possesses one of the world's smallest phonemic consonantal inventories.{{Cite web |title=An abbreviated phoneme inventory {{!}} Languages of Papua New Guinea |url=https://pnglanguages.sil.org/resources/archives/23137 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=pnglanguages.sil.org}}{{rp||page=271}} Central Rotokas has a vowel length distinction between long and short,{{rp||page=273}} but otherwise lacks distinctive suprasegmental features such as tone, and probably stress.{{Cite web |title=Organised Phonology Data |url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/62/08/03/62080328741756058527883332575824160250/Rotokas.pdf |page=3}}

Whereas Central Rotokas has only six consonantal phonemes, Aita Rotokas has nine; Aita adds phonemic nasals (e.g. this example of a minimal pair, {{IPA|/buta/}} {{gloss|time}} vs. {{IPA|/muta/}} {{gloss|taste}}{{Cite web |title=The Phoneme Inventory of the Aita Dialect of Rotokas |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236719083_The_Phoneme_Inventory_of_the_Aita_Dialect_of_Rotokas |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230323125239/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236719083_The_Phoneme_Inventory_of_the_Aita_Dialect_of_Rotokas |archive-date=2023-03-23 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=ResearchGate |language=en}}{{rp||page=208}}). The Central dialect's limited inventory likely arose by collapsing the phonemic distinction between nasals and non-nasals.{{rp||page=206}}

Nasals in Aita always correspond to voiced plosives in Central (e.g. "tree" is {{lang|roo|emaoto}} in Aita and {{lang|roo|ebaoto}} in Central{{rp||page=208}}), but voiced plosives in Central can correspond to either nasals or voiced plosives in Aita.{{rp||page=207}}

Consonants occur in three places of articulation: bilabial, alveolar, and velar, each with a voiced and an unvoiced variant.{{rp||page=207}} The three voiced phonemes each have wide allophonic variation, with the allophonic sets {{IPA|[β, b, m]}}, {{IPA|[ɾ, n, l, d]}}, and {{IPA|[ɡ, ɣ, ŋ]}}.{{rp||page=274}} This makes the choice of symbols for phonemes somewhat arbitrary.{{rp||page=207}}

Nasals are rarely heard. They will sometimes be misused when speakers try to pronounce English words (e.g. "bye-bye" being pronounced {{IPA|[maemae]}}), or when trying to imitate a foreigner speaking Rotokas (even if they were not used by the foreigner).{{rp||page=274}}

• In the 1960s, {{IPA|/t/}} was described as being {{IPA|[ts]~[s]}} before {{IPA|/i/}}.{{rp||page=274}} Later research in the 2000s found this to no longer be true, possibly due to widespread bilingualism with Tok Pisin.{{rp||page=207}}

The Aita dialect has nine consonant phonemes, with a three-way distinction required between voiced, voiceless, and nasal consonants.{{rp||page=207}}

• {{IPA|/b/}} varies between {{IPA|[b]}} and {{IPA|[β]}}.{{rp||page=207}}
• {{IPA|/d/}} is chiefly realized as {{IPA|[ɾ]}}.{{rp||page=207}}
• {{IPA|/t/}} is {{IPA|[s]}} before {{IPA|/i/}}.{{rp||page=207}}

Vowels in the Central dialect may be long or short, but the Aita dialect seems to have no length distinction.{{rp||page=209}}

{{Main|Rotokas alphabet}}

The Rotokas orthography uses 12 letters of the Latin alphabet, with no diacritics or ligatures. The letters are a, e, g, i, k, o, p, r, s, t, u and v. Long vowels are written as doubled. /t/ is written as s before i and t elsewhere and has also been written with an orthography based on the IPA symbols for its phonemes.{{rp||page=207}}

Stress is probably not phonemic. Words with 2 or 3 syllables are stressed on the initial syllable; those with 4 are stressed on the first and third; and those with 5 or more on the antepenultimate. This is complicated by long vowels, and there are exceptions to the third rule among some verb constructions.{{Cite book |last=Firchow |first=Irwin B. |url=https://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_roo_morsyn-1 |title=Vocabulary of Rotokas--Pidgin--English |last2=Firchow |first2=Jacqueline |last3=Akoitai |first3=David |date=1973 |publisher=Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics |others=The Long Now Foundation}}

{{Expand section|date=January 2025}}

Typologically, Rotokas is a fairly typical verb-final language, with adjectives and demonstrative pronouns preceding the nouns they modify, and postpositions following. Although adverbs are fairly free in their ordering, they tend to precede the verb, as in the following example:

{{interlinear|lang=roo|indent=3

|osirei-toarei avuka-va iava ururupa-vira tou-pa-si-veira

|eye-MASC.DU old-FEM.SG POST closed-ADV be-PROG-2.DU.MASC-HAB

|The old woman's eyes are shut.}}

Selected basic vocabulary items in Rotokas:{{harvcoltxt|Firchow|Firchow|2008}}

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{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last=Allen |first=Jerry |title=Languages of the Bougainville district |last2=Hurd |first2=Conard |publisher=Summer Institute of Linguistics |year=1963 |location=Ukarumpa}}
• {{Cite book |last=Firchow |first=Irwin |url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/51/11/74/5111746506820246556974918357909765330/Rotokas_grammar.pdf |title=Rotokas Grammar |year=1974 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401175123/https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/51/11/74/5111746506820246556974918357909765330/Rotokas_grammar.pdf |archive-date=2019-04-01}} (Unpublished manuscript)
• {{Cite journal |last=Firchow |first=Irwin |year=1987 |title=Form and Function of Rotokas Words |url=http://www.zapata.org/stuart/linguistics/rotokas/firchow1987/index.shtml |journal=Language and Linguistics in Melanesia |volume=15 |issue=1–2 |pages=5–111 |issn=0023-1959 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705161940/http://www.zapata.org/stuart/linguistics/rotokas/firchow1987/index.shtml |archive-date=2019-07-05}}
• {{Cite book |last=Firchow |first=Irwin B. |url=https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/31319 |title=Rotokas-English dictionary |last2=Firchow |first2=Jacqueline |publisher=Summer Institute of Linguistics |year=2008 |location=Ukarumpa}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Firchow |first=Irwin B. |last2=Firchow |first2=Jacqueline |year=1969 |title=An abbreviated phonemic inventory |journal=Anthropological Linguistics |volume=11 |issue=9 |pages=271–276 |jstor=30029468}}
• {{Cite book |last=Firchow |first=Irwin B. |url=https://archive.org/stream/rosettaproject_roo_morsyn-1 |title=Vocabulary Rotokas-Pidgin-English |last2=Firchow |first2=Jacqueline |last3=Akoitai |first3=David |publisher=Summer Institute of Linguistics |year=1973 |location=Ukarumpa |pages=vii-xii |chapter=Introduction}} (Brief grammatical sketch)
• {{Cite journal |last=Robinson |first=Stuart |year=2006 |title=The Phoneme Inventory of the Aita Dialect of Rotokas |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/oceanic_linguistics/v045/45.1robinson.pdf |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=206–209 |doi=10.1353/ol.2006.0018 |jstor=4499953 |s2cid=145809531 |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0013-192E-4}}
• {{Cite book |last=Wurm |first=Stephen |title=Language atlas of the Pacific area |last2=Hattori |first2=S. |publisher=Australian Academy of the Humanities |year=1981 |isbn=9780858832398 |location=Canberra}}

• {{Cite book |last=Firchow |first=Jackie |url=https://pnglanguages.sil.org/resources/archives/42258 |title=Organised Phonology Data |year=1992 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209183203/https://pnglanguages.sil.org/resources/archives/42258 |archive-date=2023-12-09}}
• {{Cite thesis |last=Robinson |first=Stuart |title=Split intransitivity in Rotokas, a Papuan language of Bougainville |date=2011 |access-date=6 January 2022 |degree=PhD |publisher=Ipskamp Printers |url=https://pure.mpg.de/rest/items/item_795664/component/file_2272973/content |format=PDF |location=Nijmegen |hdl=2066/85822}}

{{Languages of Papua New Guinea}}

Category:Languages of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville

Category:North Bougainville languages