Loniu
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionLos Negros Island, Manus Province
Native speakers
780 (2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3los
Glottologloni1238

Loniu is an Austronesian language spoken along the southern coast of Los Negros Island in the Manus Province, immediately east of Manus Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. Loniu is spoken in the villages of Loniu and Lolak, and there are estimated to be 450–500 native speakers, although some live in other Manus villages or on the mainland of Papua New Guinea.[2]

Loniu generally fits with most of the observations made about Oceanic languages, specifically the Admiralty Islands languages.[3][4][5][6][7] The six morphosyntactic features of 'Type B' Oceanic Languages (which include the Admiralties languages) as noted by Ross are found in Loniu. The language is essentially SVO and contains prepositions.

Phonology

Consonant Phonemes

LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Stopptk
Rounded stoppw
Affricate
Fricatives
Nasalmnɲŋ
Rounded nasalmw
Lateral Approximantl
Trillr
Approximantwj

Vowel Phonemes

FrontCentralBack
Highiu
Mid tenseeo
Mid laxɛɔ


References

Notes

  1. Loniu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. Hamel (1994)
  3. Capell, Arthur (1971). The Austronesian languages of Australian New Guinea. The Hague: Mouton. pp. 240–340.
  4. Capell, Arthur (1976). Features of Austronesian languages in the New Guinea area in general in contrast with other Austronesian languages of Melanesia. Canberra.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. Capell, Arthur (1976). General picture of Austronesian languages, New Guinea area. Canberra.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. Healey, Alan (1976). Austronesian languages: Admiralty Islands area. Canberra.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. Ross, M.D. (1988). "Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of Western Melanesia". Pacific Linguistics. C-98.

Sources

  • Hamel, Patricia J. (1993). "Serial verbs in Loniu and an evolving preposition". Oceanic Linguistics. 32 (1): 111–132. doi:10.2307/3623099. JSTOR 3623099.
  • Hamel, Patricia J. (1994). A Grammar and Lexicon of Loniu, Papua New Guinea. Pacific Linguistics Series C-103. Canberra: The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-C103. hdl:1885/145798.


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