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Siar, also known as Lak, Lamassa, or Likkilikki, is an Austronesian language spoken in
New Ireland Province New Ireland Province, formerly New Mecklenburg (german: Neu-Mecklenburg), and Nova Hibernia, is the northeasternmost province of Papua New Guinea. Physical geography The largest island of the province is New Ireland. Also part of the province a ...
in the southern island point of
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 ...
. Lak is in the Patpatar-Tolai sub-group, which then falls under the New Ireland-Tolai group in the Western Oceanic language, a sub-group within the Austronesian family. The Siar people keep themselves sustained and nourished by fishing and gardening. The native people call their language , which means 'our language'.


Phonology

Siar-Lak contains fifteen consonants, and five vowels, which does not include the mid-high vowel pronunciations of and . The vowel can be thought to be pronounced in between the high vowel and the mid vowel , as well as being in between the high vowel and the mid vowel , according to the native people in Papua New Guinea. ''ẹ'' can be written as ''é'', and ''ọ'' can also be written as ''ỏ''. Knowing which vowel is used when writing is critical, as two words that are similar can have completely different meanings. For example, means to 'carry in arms', while means 'to fly'. Also, has a meaning of 'to be able', while means 'sugarcane'.


Stress and phonotactics

Stress is placed on the last syllable in each word. Examples of words broken down into syllables and translated include:


Syllable structures

Siar Lak contains four different types of syllable patterns in their word vocabulary, which include V(vowel), VC(vowel consonant), CV(consonant vowel), and CVC(consonant vowel consonant). Some examples include:


Numerical system


Orthography

Orthography is the way words are written, using the appropriate letters from a specific language while following usage rules. If the consonant phoneme is used at the beginning of a word, that word starts with an ''f'', but if it is found at the end of a word, it is then replaced with the letter ''h''. An example of this is ', which makes the phrase , meaning 'banana (plant)', but when it is found at the end of a word, as in ', it becomes , meaning 'fire'.


Pronouns

Example sentence:


Verb phrases

Two types of verb phrases include intransitive and transitive verbs. An intransitive verb is used when there is no direct object, while a transitive verb is used when there is a direct object action taking place. An intransitive verb for 'eat' would be , while a transitive verb for 'eat' would be .


References

* * * Languages of New Ireland Province St George linkage {{MesoMelanesian-lang-stub