Kara (also Lemusmus or Lemakot) is an

Austronesian language The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...

spoken by about 5,000 people in 1998 in the

Kavieng District Kavieng District is the northernmost district of New Ireland Province in Papua New Guinea. The district contains the northern part of the island of New Ireland, as well as New Hannover, and the St. Matthias Group. The district headquarters is ...

New Ireland Province New Ireland Province, formerly New Mecklenburg (), and Nova Hibernia, is the northeasternmost Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea. Physical geography The largest island of the province is New Ireland (island), New Irelan ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. Laxudumau, spoken in the village of Lakudumau, is transitional to Nalik.

Phonology

Consonants

Kara contains fourteen

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

s. Single consonants are found within the

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

of a word, intervocalically between two vowels,

finally Finally may refer to: Albums * ''Finally'' (Namie Amuro album) (2017) * ''Finally!'', a 2024 album by The Aquabats * ''Finally'' (Blackstreet album) or its title song * ''Finally'' (Sean Ensign album) or its title song "It's My Life (Finally ...

and in sequences of less than two words

medial Medial may refer to: Mathematics * Medial magma, a mathematical identity in algebra Geometry * Medial axis, in geometry the set of all points having more than one closest point on an object's boundary * Medial graph, another graph that repr ...

ly. Voiceless consonants create a cluster on the second consonant. Voiced consonants appear initially and intervocally. They appear as the second consonant of a cluster. An example would be 'tree sap'.Schlie, Perry, & Schlie, Ginny. (n.d.). A Kara Phonology. In ''Phonologies of Austronesian Languages, II'' (Data Papers in Papua New Guinea Languages, pp. 100). Ukarumpa via Lae: Summer Inst. of Ling. It is notable that different dialects change the use of consonants. West Kara replaces with anytime it would proceed a vowel, and interpolate with before a vowel and at the end of a word.

Vowels

Kara contains ten

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

s. Relative to their position in the IPA vowel chart, the vowels in Kara tend to contrast each other throughout the language. Central vowels and contrast in both open and closed syllables.Schlie, Perry, & Schlie, Ginny. (n.d.). A Kara Phonology. In ''Phonologies of Austronesian Languages, II'' (Data Papers in Papua New Guinea Languages, pp. 102). Ukarumpa via Lae: Summer Inst. of Ling. Example: * 'east', 'instrument/accompany' Mid-vowels and , and and are complementary to each other in their respective pairs. Each pair occurs in

open syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of Phone (phonetics), speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''ma ...

s, a

syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

consisting of an ''onset'' and ''nucleus'' but no ''coda''. * 'locative' and 'betray', compared to 'mute' and �ɔt'type of fishing' Higher vowels and , and and contrast in

closed syllables A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

, a syllable consisting of an ''onset'', ''nucleus'', and ''coda''. * 'break (a rope)' and 'hit (inanimate object)' * 'husk' and 'erupt/explode'

Stress

Kara has an unusual occurrence of stress, or relative emphasis of syllables. Stress in Kara occurs on any syllable in a word, but follows a system of rules that allow placement of stress in an ordered system in all words that contain two syllables or more. However, syllables stemmed from prefixes are never stressed regardless of the ordered system. Stress is determined by three factors: vowel quality, syllable closure, and position in the word, with vowel quality being the most important factor.Schlie, Perry, & Schlie, Ginny. (n.d.). A Kara Phonology. In ''Phonologies of Austronesian Languages, II'' (Data Papers in Papua New Guinea Languages, pp. 109). Ukarumpa via Lae: Summer Inst. of Ling.

Syllables and stress

A syllable with a nucleus of receives primary stress regardless of its position in the word. * 'plant' * 'one-leg' * 'we' A word with more than one syllable and a nucleus of has the stress fall on the last syllable.. * 'muddy' A word with neither a syllable with a nucleus of or a closed syllable has the stress fall on the initial syllable. * 'axe'

Grammar

Kara follows a verb–subject–object word order, and uses reduplication for creation of more complex sentences. The language determines that body parts and

kinship terms Kinship terminology is the system used in languages to refer to the persons to whom an individual is related through kinship. Different societies classify kinship relations differently and therefore use different systems of kinship terminology; ...

must be identified as belonging to someone which make it possible for inalienable possession.Schlie, Perry, & Schlie, Ginny. (n.d.). A Kara Phonology. In ''Phonologies of Austronesian Languages, II'' (Data Papers in Papua New Guinea Languages, pp. 117). Ukarumpa via Lae: Summer Inst. of Ling.

Verbs

Verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...

s in Kara are used transitively, meaning that the verbs in Kara span a spectrum that ultimately determines how speaking of the language occurs between an object and that verb. Transitivity of verbs is used to also determine whether the spoken language is between two people actively who are actively speakers, rather than a speaker and a listener. For example: the verb 'say' has an initiator but no one to actively speak to.Franklin, K., & Summer Institute of Linguistics. Papua New Guinea Branch. (1989). ''Studies in componential analysis'' (Data papers on Papua New Guinea languages; vol. no. 36, pg. 39-45). Ukarumpa via Lae, Papua New Guinea: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Reduplication

Reduplication In linguistics, reduplication is a Morphology (linguistics), morphological process in which the Root (linguistics), root or Stem (linguistics), stem of a word, part of that, or the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change. The cla ...

occurs in words with an initial plosive consonant. The reduplicated consonant created is said fricatively within the same articulation of the word. * 'secured/confined' (cf. 'tie') * 'striking' (cf. 'hit' * 'lying' (cf. 'lie' * 'talking' (cf. 'say')

Inalienable possession

Note that most of the second-person forms do not contain ; this occurs because sequences such as only occur before or . Since is the second vowel in a sequence, is either combined or deleted before any consonant besides and .

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Languages of Papua New Guinea Meso-Melanesian languages Languages of New Ireland Province