Suki language
Encyclopedia
Suki is a language isolate
spoken by about 3500 people several miles inland along the Fly River
in southwestern Papua New Guinea
. Suki is primarily spoken in six villages of the Western Province
: Gwaku, Iwewi, Ewe, Gwibaku, Duru, and Isala. Suki is genetically related to the three other languages of the Gogodala–Suki stock, Gogodala
, Ari
, and Waruna, but is considered a family-level isolate within this group. As with many Papuan languages
, there are very few published materials on Suki. The literacy rate in Suki is 5-15%, English is the language of instruction in schools and Hiri Motu is also spoken.
of Suki is relatively simple. It has a five-vowel system, much like many of the non-Austronesian languages of Papua New Guinea. The consonant system is also fairly simple, containing 13 phonemes. The tables below list the phonemes and their allophones; allophones are given in parentheses.
. It follows English conventions of capitalizing proper names and the first words of sentences. Punctuation is mostly as in English, though question marks and exclamation points are not used. The following letters are used to write Suki: a b d e g i k m n o p r s t u w y z. The letters w and y are used both as consonants and vowels.
In writing, numerals one through four are spelled out, while numerals above four are written with Arabic numerals
.
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
spoken by about 3500 people several miles inland along the Fly River
Fly River
The Fly at , is the second longest river, after the Sepik, in Papua New Guinea. The Fly is the largest river in Oceania, the largest in the world without a single dam in its catchment, and overall ranks as the twenty-fifth largest river in the world by volume of discharge...
in southwestern Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
. Suki is primarily spoken in six villages of the Western Province
Western Province (Papua New Guinea)
Western Province is a coastal province in southwestern Papua New Guinea, bordering the Indonesian province of Papua. The provincial capital is Daru, on the island of Daru. The largest town in the province is Tabubil...
: Gwaku, Iwewi, Ewe, Gwibaku, Duru, and Isala. Suki is genetically related to the three other languages of the Gogodala–Suki stock, Gogodala
Gogodala
Gogodala is the name of an ethnic/language group from the Middle Fly District of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, one of about a thousand different cultures that make up Papua New Guinea, each with its own languages and lifestyles.-Overview:...
, Ari
Ari language
The Ari language is a Papuan language of the Trans–New Guinea family. As of the 2000 census there were only 50 Ari speakers, living in two villages.-External links:*...
, and Waruna, but is considered a family-level isolate within this group. As with many Papuan languages
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. The term does not presuppose a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.-The...
, there are very few published materials on Suki. The literacy rate in Suki is 5-15%, English is the language of instruction in schools and Hiri Motu is also spoken.
Alternate Names
Suki is also known as Wiram and was also earlier incorrectly referred to as Nausaku, after one of the villages where Suki was spoken. The village no longer exists, but was located near present-day Isala.Phonology
The phonologyPhonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
of Suki is relatively simple. It has a five-vowel system, much like many of the non-Austronesian languages of Papua New Guinea. The consonant system is also fairly simple, containing 13 phonemes. The tables below list the phonemes and their allophones; allophones are given in parentheses.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stops | p b (β) | t (tʰ) d | k (kʰ) ɡ (ɣ) | |
| Fricatives | s z | |||
| Nasals | m | n | ||
| Approximants | w | ɾ (l) | j | |
Vowels
| i (ɪ) (e) | u (ʊ) | |
| ɛ (æ) | o (ɔ) | |
| a (ɑ) | ||
Orthography
Suki is written using the Roman alphabet without diacriticsDiacritics
diacritics is a quarterly academic journal established in 1971 at Cornell University and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Articles serve to review recent literature in the field of literary criticism, and have covered topics in gender studies, political theory, psychoanalysis, queer...
. It follows English conventions of capitalizing proper names and the first words of sentences. Punctuation is mostly as in English, though question marks and exclamation points are not used. The following letters are used to write Suki: a b d e g i k m n o p r s t u w y z. The letters w and y are used both as consonants and vowels.
Morphology
Suki is an agglutinating language primarily via suffixing, though a small number of prefixes have been attested. Both nouns and verbs can take a large number of suffixes. The verbal structure is as follows, where items in parentheses are optional: verb root + (causative suffix) + (person-object suffix) + (transitive suffix) + tense suffix + person-number suffix. The person suffixes are as follows:| Person-Object | Person-Number | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | -ne | -aru |
| 2nd/3rd singular | -ø | -eru |
| 1st plural | -iye | -erimu |
| 2nd/3rd plural | -de | -eru |
Pronouns
The pronoun system of Suki is somewhat unique in that the pronouns for 2nd singular and 1st plural are homophonous. Just like the nouns, the pronouns can also take most case affixes.| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ne | e |
| 2nd person | e | de |
| 3rd person | u | i |
Numerals
There are four numerals native to Suki, though only two morphemes to express these and perhaps only one of them is original to the language. Voorhoeve states that Suki seems to have borrowed menes (two) from the neighboring Zimakani people. Numerals can also take a limited number of case affixes.| 1 | nimap |
| 2 | menes |
| 3 | menes nimap |
| 4 | menes menes |
In writing, numerals one through four are spelled out, while numerals above four are written with Arabic numerals
Arabic numerals
Arabic numerals or Hindu numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals or Indo-Arabic numerals are the ten digits . They are descended from the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed by Indian mathematicians, in which a sequence of digits such as "975" is read as a numeral...
.