Wikipedia

Tobati language

Tobati
Yotafa
Native toIndonesia
RegionPapua
EthnicityTobati
Native speakers
100 (2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3tti
Glottologtoba1266
ELPTobati
Tobati is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Tobati, or Yotafa, is an Austronesian language within the Oceanic branch, from the Sarmi–Jayapura subfamily, in Jayapura bay in Papua province, Indonesia.[1] Notably, Tobati displays a very rare object–subject–verb word order.

Tobati was once thought to be a Papuan language because as recently as 1952, it had a characteristically Papuan subject–object–verb word order.[2]

Phonology

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Consonants
Labial Labio-
dental 		Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ[a]
Stop voiceless t c k
voiced b d d͡ʒ
Fricative voiceless ɸ f s ʃ h[b]
voiced ɣ ~ ɰ
Approximant w j
Rhotic r
  1. ^ Before a vowel realized as [ŋɡ], otherwise nasalizes the preceding vowel.[2]
  2. ^ Displays free variation as [h ~ ɦ ~ x ~ ɣ].

/f/ also shows allophony as [p]. However, it does not behave as a stop (see below).

Tobati has a five-vowel system of /a e i o u/, realized as [a ɛ i ɔ ʊ] in closed syllables.

Phonotactics

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Tobati permits three consonants in the onset, and at most a single consonant or a nasal–stop cluster in the coda.

Nasal–stop clusters only permit a nasal and a stop of the same place of articulation. For the /nd/ sequence, /n/ becomes dental [n̪]. Neither the bilabial, consisting of /b/ and the /f/ allophone [p], nor palatal nasal–stop clusters distinguish voice (i.e. they are [pm ~ bm] and [cɲ ~ d͡ʒɲ] respectively). The /Nk/ sequence voices to [ŋɡ].[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b Tobati at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c Donahue (2002). "Tobati". In Crowley, Terry; Lynch, John; Ross, Malcolm (eds.). The Oceanic Languages. Routledge. pp. 186–8. ISBN 978-0-7007-1128-4.