Obokuitai language


Obokuitai is a Lakes Plain language of Papua, Indonesia. It is named after Obogwi village in East Central Mambermano District, Mamberamo Raya Regency.
Obokuitai, Sikaritai, and Eritai constitute a dialect cluster.

Phonology

The following discussion is based on Jenison & Jenison.
Unusual phonological features of Obokuitai and other Lakes Plain languages are the complete lack of nasals, even allophones, and a series of extra high or fricativized vowels that developed from loss of a following stop consonant. Obokuitai has one of the smallest phonemic inventories in the world, level with the Pirahã and Rotokas languages.

Consonants

The small consonant inventory is typical of Lakes Plain languages.

Vowels

Obokuitai has five vowels.
FrontCentralBack
Highiu
Midɛo
Lowa

Tone

Like the other Lakes Plain languages, Obokuitai is tonal. L, H, and HL pitch contours occur on monosyllabic words. A phonological analysis of the tone system remains to be completed. However, the probable phonemic aspect of the tone is shown through the minimal triad kuik1 ‘rock’, kuik2 ‘insect’ and kuik12 ‘lizard’.

Pronouns

Possessive pronouns in Obokuitai are:

Verbs

Obokuitai has three verbal prefixes, which are:
Some examples of verbs with the prefixes, as compared to the verb roots without them:
There are two aspectual verbal suffixes:
Final particles in Obokuitai: