Kobon language

Kobon
Native to Papua New Guinea
Region Madang Province, Middle Ramu District, and Western Highlands Province on Kaironk River in lower Jimi River area north of Mt. Hagen
Native speakers
 10,000  (2007)[1]
4,000 monolinguals (no date)[1]
Trans–New Guinea
Language codes
ISO 639-3 kpw
Glottolog kobo1249[2]

Kobon (pronounced Kombon) is a language of Papua New Guinea. It has somewhere around 90–120 verbs.

Geographic distribution

Kobon is spoken in Madang Province and Western Highlands Province, north of Mount Hagen.

Sounds

Vowels

Vowels are /i e ɨ ə a o u/. /i/ and /u/ may be [jɪ] and [wʊ~ʍʊ̥] word-initially. /ɨ/ and /ə/ are written ⟨ü⟩ and ⟨ö⟩.

Consonants

Kobon distinguishes an alveolar lateral /l/, a palatal lateral /ʎ/, a subapical retroflex lateral flap / / (ɭ̆ ), and a fricative trill /r̝/, though the frication on the latter is variable.

m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩ ɲ ⟨ñ⟩ ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩
p~b~mb ⟨b⟩ d~nd ⟨d⟩ ɟʑ~ɲɟʑ ⟨j⟩ k~ɣ~ŋɡ ⟨g⟩
f~ɸ~v~β ⟨p⟩ s ⟨s⟩ tɕ ⟨c⟩ kʰ~kx~x~ɣ ⟨k⟩ h ⟨h⟩
l ⟨l⟩ ʎ ⟨ɫ⟩
ɾ̝̊~ɾ̝~r̝ ⟨r⟩ ⟨ƚ⟩
w ⟨w⟩ j ⟨y⟩

Voiced consonants are prenasalized after vowels, and some are optionally voiceless word-initially. Some voiceless consonants are optionally voiced between vowels. All consonants but the nasals have final devoicing. For example, final /l/ is [ɬ], and final /d/ is [ntʰ]. (/w/ and /j/ do not occur in final position.)

Grammar

Kobon is a subject–object–verb language.

Singular, dual, and plural are distinguished in personal pronouns and kinship terminology.

Like the other Kalam languages, Kobon is famous for having a very small number of verbs—perhaps less than 120 for the entire language. These verbs are combined with nouns into phrases with specific meanings, much as one says "have dinner" rather than "dine" in English.

This makes for an interesting window into semantics. One might expect that with a very limited set of verbs, their meanings would be quite general as have, do, be and go are in English. To a certain extent this is really the case, as there is for example only one verb of perception. That is, the same verb is used for see, hear, taste, smell, feel (both physically and emotionally), think, and understand (compare with "I see" for "I understand" in English). Another verb is used for making sound, whether it's speaking, singing, praying, crying, twigs breaking, rocks clattering, or water gurgling. However, some Kobon verbs are quite specific. There is one exception for sound, for example: there's a specific verb for calling a pig. There are also three verbs of pouring, depending on whether the thing being poured is solid, liquid, or food; and there is even a verb that means to quarter a cassowary.

Writing system

Kobon has been written in the Latin alphabet for over 30 years. The special letters ƚ and ɫ are used for the subapical retroflex lateral flap and palatal lateral, respectively.

a b c d e g h i j k l ƚ ɫ m n ñ ŋ o ö p r s u ü w y

5–15% of Kobon speakers are literate.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kobon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Kobon". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  • John Davies, 1981. Kobon. Lingua Descriptive Series 3.