The Kuot language, or Panaras, is a language isolate, the only non- Austronesian language spoken on the island of New Ireland,

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. Lindström (2002: 30) estimates that there are 1,500 fluent speakers of Kuot. Perhaps due to the small speaker base, there are no significant dialects present within Kuot. It is spoken in 10 villages, including Panaras village () of Sentral Niu Ailan Rural LLG in New Ireland Province.

Locations

Kuot is spoken in the following 10 villages. The first five villages are located eastern coast, and the last five on the western coast in New Ireland.Lindström, Eva. 2002. ''Topics in the Grammar of Kuot''. Ph.D. dissertation, Stockholm University. Geographical coordinates are also provided for each village. *Kama () *Bol () (mixed with Nalik speakers) *Fanafiliuo *Liedan () *Kabi () *Naiama () *Panaras () *Naliut () *Nakalakalap () *Patlangat () *Bimun () Combined, the two villages of Naliut and Nakalakalap are known as Neiruaran (). Most of the villages are located in Sentral Niu Ailan Rural LLG, though some of the eastern villages, such as Kama and Bol, are located in Tikana Rural LLG. The Kuot variety described by Lindström (2002) is that of Bimun village.

Language contact

Lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...

in some Austronesian languages of New Ireland, namely Lamasong,

Madak Madak was a blend of opium and tobacco used as a recreational drug in 16th- and 17th-century China. It emerged in southern coastal areas in the first half of the 17th century. In the last quarter of the 18th century madak was phased out by raw ...

Barok Barok is considered one of the most popular komiks characters in the Philippines created by Filipino cartoonist Bert Sarile in 1973. It also means Sillano. A stone-age Philippine comic book character, Barok was described by Sarile as a lead chara ...

, Nalik, and

Kara Kara or KARA may refer to: Geography Localities * Kara, Chad, a sub-prefecture * Kára, Hungary, a village * Kara, Uttar Pradesh, India, a township * Kara, Iran, a village in Lorestan Province * Kara, Republic of Dagestan, a rural locality in Da ...

, may have diffused via influence from Kuot (Ross 1994: 566).

Status

Kuot is an

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

and most children, if not all, grow up speaking

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...

instead.Eva Lindström (November 12, 2002). "Kuot Language and Culture". Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University. Retrieved October 14, 2016. p. 102.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

The vowels /i/ and /u/ tend to become glide-vowels in occurrence with other vowels. The length of the vowels is not making differences for the meaning of words. The appearance of /i/ and /u/ with other vowels can not be seen as diphthong or a combination of vowel and glide-vowel. There are never more than three vowels per syllable. The combination of diphthong and vowel is also possible but they are pronounced in conditions of the syllable. Diphthongs are spoken like one sound.

Allophones

Morphophonemic Alternations

't' to 'r' Alternation

The phoneme in certain possessive markers, such as "''-tuaŋ''", "''-tuŋ''" and "''-tuo''" becomes when it comes after a stem ending in a vowel. Compare: * ''ira-ruaŋ'' – my father * ''luguan-tuaŋ'' – my house * ''i'rama-ruo'' – my eye * ''nebam-tuaŋ'' – my feather

Vowel Shortening

Where the third person singular masculine suffix "-oŋ" is used on a noun that ends with a vowel, this vowel is typically not pronounced. For instance, "''amaŋa-oŋ''" is pronounced , not .

Voicing Rule

When vowel-initial suffixes are added to stems that end in voiceless consonants, those consonants become voiced. For example: * ''he splits it'' * ''he drinks'' * ''he prays'' The phoneme becomes , not . * ''it comes out'' * ''her eyes''

Grammar

Kuot is the only Papuan language that has

VSO word order VSO may refer to: * VSO, an aircraft's stall speed in the landing configuration * Valdosta Southern Railroad * Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, a Canadian orchestra performing in Vancouver, British Columbia * Variable Speed Oscillator - see Oscillati ...

, similar to

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

and

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

. The

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

of the language is primarily

agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...

. There are two grammatical genders, male and female, and distinction is made in the first person between singular, dual, and plural, as well as between exclusive and inclusive. For instance, the sentence literally means 'my father eats sweet potato'. ''Parak-oŋ'' is a

continuous aspect The continuous and progressive aspects (abbreviated and ) are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action ("to do") or state ("to be") in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects. In the grammars of many ...

of the verb meaning 'to eat', ''ira'' means 'father', ''-ruaŋ'' is a suffix used to indicate

inalienable possession In linguistics, inalienable possession (abbreviated ) is a type of possession in which a noun is obligatorily possessed by its possessor. Nouns or nominal affixes in an inalienable possession relationship cannot exist independently or be "ali ...

('my father'), and ''kamin'' is a simple noun meaning ' sweet potato'.

Noun declensions

Kuot nouns can be singular, dual, or plural. Below are some noun declension paradigms in Kuot (from Stebbins, et al. (2018), based on Lindström 2002: 147–146): :

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Lindström (2008), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: :

References

External links

Kuot language word list at TransNewGuinea.orgKuot word list
(Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuot Language Agglutinative languages East Papuan languages Language isolates of New Guinea Languages of New Ireland Province Verb–subject–object languages Vulnerable languages Endangered Papuan languages Endangered language isolates