Organised Phonology Data
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Organised Phonology Data Sop (Sob, Usino) Language [URW] Usino – Madang Province Trans New Guinea Phylum; Madang-Adelberg Range Subphylum; Rai Coast Stock; Peka Family Population census: 1600 Major villages: Usino Linguistic work done by: SIL Data checked by: Phonemic and Orthographic Inventory b d e f i k m n o p s t u a b d e f g i,y k m n o p r s t u,w ü A B D E F G I,Y K M N O P R S T U,W Ü Consonants Bilab LabDen Dental Alveo Postalv Retro Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn Glottal Plosive p b t d k Nasal m n Trill Tap/Flap Fricative f s Lateral Fricative Approx Lateral Approx Ejective Stop Implos p puta 'wet' f finege 'woman' sipim 'belly' - - t torub 'mountain' b bitum 'tail' fata 'house' mube 'skin' at 'stick' fib 'willage' - kebkai 'water snake' d dira 'old' m maga 'tooth' edina 'moon' kumusa 'black' ged 'ringworm' fum 'stem' kümdim 'ground' gamgar 'vine sp.' Sop (Sob, Usino) OPD Printed: September 6, 2004 Page 2 n nag 'you (sg)' k keb 'fire' keneb 'star' akara 'two' don 'rat' - - siksik 'crockroach' kebkai 'water snake' - fere 'man' gigib 'armpit' kar 'grass skirt' maga 'tooth' eprage 'many' mug 'banana' gamgar 'vine type' s sara 'hair' kumusa 'black' - abuskai 'old woman' amsese 'what' Vowels i u e o i ita 'frog' - yag 'water' günena 'one' digir 'nail' d¨ur 'meat' mi 'louse' kiag 'bamboo' nuya 'green' kiu 'snake sp.' iu e ege 'eye' kideu 'kwila' fere 'man' eu sube 'mouth' meag 'here' i ai 'bird' kube daige 'left arm' dawai 'pig' akara 'two' mam 'dog' kuaida 'chicken' kewa 'cassowary' meag 'here' u au 'tree' yaurob 'saliva' maur 'white' o omai 'bean' fogob 'shoulder' nau 'coconut' omo 'new' kiau 'boat' fio 'cloud' oi yoi 'kunai grass' goime 'inside' u utum 'yesterday' wade 'fish' goiam 'old man' barub 'neck' matu 'snake' ou oude 'canoe' orua 'pumpkin' dou 'digging stick' owa 'older sm sx sibling' i küi 'tree' Sop (Sob, Usino) OPD Printed: September 6, 2004 Page 3 /iu/ /eu/ /i/ /u/ /oi/ /ou/ /ui/ /i/ Suprasegmentals (tone, stress, length) Stress does not seem to be phonemic. Syllable Patterns V e.ge 'eye' fi.o 'cloud' VV ai 'bird' ou.de 'canoe' CV mi 'louse' ta.ba 'head' u.di.ge 'sand' su.be 'mouth' CVV dou 'digging stick' goi.am 'old man' tu.kau 'short' CVC nur 'nose' keb.kai 'water snake' a.bus.kai 'old woman' si.bim 'stomach' CVVC maur 'white' VC am 'what' ep.ra.ge 'many' goi.am 'old man' Conventions: Phonological /b/ and // both have optional strident variants [] and [ ] respectively lightly between vowels where the second vowel is front. The voiced alveolar plosive becomes affricate [dz] before [i]. There are some cases not explained by this rule which are a seeming minimal pair; kad [kdz] 'moscuito', ged [d] 'ringworm', gud [udz] 'wild papaya' (speaker says this is really /udi/). The following rule may shed some light on this problem. The high vowels /i/ and /u/ tend to devoice in word final positions. The form [kdz] may also have a final unvoiced or deleted [i] which would make it fit the rule of alveolar stridency. The voiced bilabial plosive /b/ becomes optional devoiced and unreleased in word final position. Semivowels:The high back rounded vowel /u/ becomes a semivowel in the environment of a velar plosive or /s/ or another vowel. A semivowel is inserted between vowels at syllable boundaries when the first vowel is high; iauara [jauwara] 'yellow'. A high vowel becomes non-syllabic if it is between vowels and the last vowel is not high or if it is word initial preceding another vowel; iag [j] 'water', nuia [nuj] 'green'. The voiceless plosives are all aspirated. There are found only 4 words with /p/ in them. Conventions: Orthographic Even though [j] and [w] can be predicted, the initial checking with speakers indicates that they would like to see them written in the orthography. The following spelling rules are probably needed. a. Word initial /i/ and /u/ should be written as <y> and <w > respectively. b. Word medial /i/ and /u/ should be written as consonants syllable initial after a vowel except in the case of /ia/ or /ua/ where no consonant needs to be written; dawai /dui/ 'pig', but duar /dur/ 'food'. The sixth vowel phoneme / / is written as <ü> tentatively. This is in absence of an preference shown by the people worked with. Also Girawa, the neighbouring language, uses <ä> for its 6th vowel (but not the same sound) and this would give some regional continuity for symbolization. The phoneme is not very frequent however it does occur in some very common words. Much more testing needs to be done on this. Sop (Sob, Usino) OPD Printed: September 6, 2004 Page 4 Transcription of a recorded passage / ide dmn eime ieb mu sob fibio buuie e | nin b dumo en buuien bbue mu fee di usid uud | uen nin b duumob fee u bbue ninib inim bb duu / < Igde Daraman Egime yeb matua sob fibigo buruaiger ge, nin ba dugamo gürena buruaigen. Babaure mugar fere di wasigüd wagud, wagen nin ba dugumob fere war babaure ninib yanim baba dugugar. > My story. ‘In the past, my annestors did not stay in the village, they used to stay in the forest. So other people always say that "you are people of the forest" . So our name means we are forest people.' Bibliography Gasaway, Eileen 1994. Organized Phonology Data for Sop (Sob) Language. Ms, SIL, Ukarumpa. .