Siar, also known as Lak, Lamassa, or Likkilikki, is an Austronesian language spoken in New Ireland Province in the southern island point of Papua New Guinea. 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 ep warwar anun dat, which means "our language".
Phonology
Siar-Lak contains fifteen consonants, and five vowels, which does not include the mid-high vowel pronunciations of /é/ and /ó/.
Bilabial
Dental-Alveolar
Palatal
Velar
Voiceless Plosive
p
t
k
Voiced Plosive
b
d
g
Nasal
m
n
ŋ
Fricative
ɸ
s
Lateral
l
Trill
r
Approximant
w
y
Front
Central
Back
High
i
u
Mid-high
ẹ
ọ
Mid
e
o
Low
a
The vowel /ẹ/ can be thought to be pronounced in between the high vowel /I/ and the mid vowel /E/, as well as /ọ/ being in between the high vowel /U/ and the mid vowel /O/, 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, "rowoi" means to "carry in arms", while "rówói" means "to fly". Also, "toh" has a meaning of "to be able", while "tóh" 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:
Siar-Lak
English
mam.su.ai
"sneeze"
ar.ngas
"mountain peak"
far.bón
"praise"
fet.rar
"young woman"
Syllable Structures
Siar Lak contains four different types of syllable patterns in their word vocabulary, which include V, VC, CV, and CVC. Some examples include:
Orthography is the way words are written, using the appropriate letters from a specific language while following usage rules. If the consonant phoneme /φ/ 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 "ep φun", which makes the phrase "ep fun", meaning "banana ", but when it is found at the end of a word, as in "ep yaφ", it becomes "ep yah", meaning "fire".
Two types of verb phrases included 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 of eat, would be "angan", while a transitive verb for eat would be "yan".
