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Sulka
Sulka is a language that is located in Papua New Guinea with currently 2,500 speakers. With such a low population of speakers, this language is on the brink of being endangered. Over 3,000 to 3,500 years ago, Sulka speakers arrived to the Papua New Guinea area meaning that this language has its own history.

Papuan Language
Papuan languages comprises of over 700 languages in its region. However, only about 10 percent are sufficiently documented making it very difficult to be represented in linguistics literature. This is most likely due to the fact that, unlike Austronesian languages where all the languages are genetically related and can be traced back to an origin language, Papuan languages are not all part of the same family. Phonologically, Papuan languages have very simple phonetic systems. Rotakas, a Papuan language, has the smallest phonemic inventory in the world (Firchow and Firchow 1969).

History
When the Sulka people arrived in New Guinea, where they arrived was only a minicontinent with neighboring islands populated by people speaking what we know as Papuan. Over the years, the Sulka language has been in contact with many different groups changing its language. Because of this, linguists are still debating whether Sulka is Papuan or an Austronesian language. It is very difficult to find information on the language of Sulka. This is because the language is more commonly classified as a Papuan language.

Phonology
The phonological system of Sulka comprises 28 contrasting segments, fourteen consonants, and 7 vowels.

Consonants




 * p || t || || k [q] ||
 * || ||  || ɡ [ɣ][ʁ] ||
 * m || n || || ŋ [ɴ] ||
 * || r [d] || ||  ||
 * β [b] || s || ||  || h
 * || l || ||  ||
 * w || || j ||  ||
 * } For its vowels, there is a contrast between three front vowels: high, mid, and low, [i], [e], and [ε], but there is no instance of the central high vowel. However, when it comes to vocalic contrasts, it is not always clear. The sounds O and U often fluctuates with each other. This pattern of fluctuation seems to commonly occur for high front vowels. When looking at the length of vowels, long vowels are often confused with diphthongs. (Sulka of East New Britain: A Mixture of Oceanic and Papuan Traits, Reesink, 2005)
 * β [b] || s || ||  || h
 * || l || ||  ||
 * w || || j ||  ||
 * } For its vowels, there is a contrast between three front vowels: high, mid, and low, [i], [e], and [ε], but there is no instance of the central high vowel. However, when it comes to vocalic contrasts, it is not always clear. The sounds O and U often fluctuates with each other. This pattern of fluctuation seems to commonly occur for high front vowels. When looking at the length of vowels, long vowels are often confused with diphthongs. (Sulka of East New Britain: A Mixture of Oceanic and Papuan Traits, Reesink, 2005)
 * w || || j ||  ||
 * } For its vowels, there is a contrast between three front vowels: high, mid, and low, [i], [e], and [ε], but there is no instance of the central high vowel. However, when it comes to vocalic contrasts, it is not always clear. The sounds O and U often fluctuates with each other. This pattern of fluctuation seems to commonly occur for high front vowels. When looking at the length of vowels, long vowels are often confused with diphthongs. (Sulka of East New Britain: A Mixture of Oceanic and Papuan Traits, Reesink, 2005)

Papuan vs Austronesian



 * Austronesian||Papuan||
 * Word Order||SVO and prepositions||||
 * Phonology||phonemic inventory resembles Mengen phonemic contrast l and r||resembles Kol (almost) all consonants occur word-finally many consonant clusters||
 * Lexicon||||lacks typical AN lexicon||
 * Verb Morphology||mood: realis vs irrealis as portmanteau with subject proclitics sequential ka||
 * Valency Changing Devices||||transitivizing suffix no causative prefix *pa(ka) no reciprocal *paRi stem change for object number||
 * Pronominal System||lacks gender on 3SG||lacks INCL/EXCL on 1 NONSG||
 * Nominal Constituent||prenominal articles/demonstratives||||
 * Plural Formation||||plural formation with irregular forms, some of which are possibly cognate with Kol, Kuot, and Lavukaleve||
 * Adjectives||attributive adjective=nominalized form||||
 * Possessive Constructions||||possessor is prefixed to possessed item no POSS suffix on inalienables||
 * Counting System||||quinary||
 * Deictic Elements||some cognates with Tolai||||
 * Social Organization||moieties with clans resembling Mengen matrilineal||
 * }
 * Plural Formation||||plural formation with irregular forms, some of which are possibly cognate with Kol, Kuot, and Lavukaleve||
 * Adjectives||attributive adjective=nominalized form||||
 * Possessive Constructions||||possessor is prefixed to possessed item no POSS suffix on inalienables||
 * Counting System||||quinary||
 * Deictic Elements||some cognates with Tolai||||
 * Social Organization||moieties with clans resembling Mengen matrilineal||
 * }
 * Counting System||||quinary||
 * Deictic Elements||some cognates with Tolai||||
 * Social Organization||moieties with clans resembling Mengen matrilineal||
 * }
 * Social Organization||moieties with clans resembling Mengen matrilineal||
 * }

Lexicon
A great majority of Sulka's lexicon is not Oceanic/Austronesian as stated by Schneider. However, there are a few words that are shared between both Papuan and Oceanic.

1. pun 'base', as in a ho ka pun 'the tree its base', reflects POC *puqun. Laufer (1955:42) gives Mengen pun ~ Gunantuna (= Tolai) vuna as evidence for the presence of Mengen speakers along the Wide Bay before Sulka speakers arrived from South New Ireland. But Sulka pun is not a recent Mengen loan. Rath (1986, ex. 324) gives bega pu-na for 'tree base-3SG.POSS'.

2. nut 'island' ~ POC *nusa, with reflexes such as nui in NNG and nua in PT, nuta in Southeast Solomonic (Ross, Pawley, and Osmond 2003:42).

3. kus 'rain' appears to reflect POC *qusan (Ross, Pawley, and Osmond 2003:141); with kue as reflex in Mengen (Poeng dialect).

4. kopoi 'fog' ~ POC *kapu(t); *kopu (Ross, Pawley, and Osmond 2003:140).

5. malo 'skirt made of bark from the breadfruit tree'. The Sulka form is identical to the one found in Mengen and Kove of the North New Guinea linkage, rather than to mal as it appears in languages of the St. George linkage. Of course, it may be a recent direct borrowing from Mengen.

(Sulka of East New Britain: A Mixture of Oceanic and Papuan Traits, Reesink, 2005)

Verb Structure



 * Free||Perfective Realis||Future Irrealis||
 * 1SG||dok||ko-~ku-||ngu-er(a)||
 * 2SG||yen||i-||ngi-er(a)||
 * 3SG||ëën||t-||n-er(a)||
 * 1PL||mor||ngo-t-||ngur-er(a)||
 * 2PL||muk||mu-tu||mug-er(a)||
 * 3PL||mar||nga-t-||ng-er(a)||
 * 1DU||muo||mo-t-||mu-er(a)||
 * 2DU||moe||më-t-||më-er(a)||
 * 3DU||men||men-t-ngen-t||ngen-er(a)||
 * 2PL||muk||mu-tu||mug-er(a)||
 * 3PL||mar||nga-t-||ng-er(a)||
 * 1DU||muo||mo-t-||mu-er(a)||
 * 2DU||moe||më-t-||më-er(a)||
 * 3DU||men||men-t-ngen-t||ngen-er(a)||
 * 2DU||moe||më-t-||më-er(a)||
 * 3DU||men||men-t-ngen-t||ngen-er(a)||
 * 3DU||men||men-t-ngen-t||ngen-er(a)||
 * 3DU||men||men-t-ngen-t||ngen-er(a)||


 * } Basic verb phrases are similar to Oceanic languages. For a typical Austronesian sentence structure, it follows the Subject Verb Object word order whereas Papuan follows a Subject Object Verb word order.  Free pronouns mainly act as verbal or prepositional object.  Instead of having the bilabial nasal found on the free pronouns, first and third person plural have an initial velar. (Sulka of East New Britain: A Mixture of Oceanic and Papuan Traits, Reesink, 2005)

Masculine/Feminine
Most Papuan languages have masculine and feminine distinctions. However, the Sulka language does not follow this rule. As for the Austronesian languages, where they have inclusive and exclusive opposition in nonsingular first person, Sulka does not follow them either (Sulka of East New Britain: A Mixture of Oceanic and Papuan Traits, Reesink, 2005). As stated by Reesink, "There is not even a third person differentiation between feminine and masculine genders".