Sursurunga language

Sursurunga is an Oceanic language of New Ireland.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Fricative				Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
Nasal		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Trill				Template:IPA link
Approximant		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

• Template:IPAslink has two allophones: Template:IPAblink syllable initially and Template:IPAblink syllable finally.
• Template:IPAslink has two allophones: Template:IPAblink syllable initially and Template:IPAblink~Template:IPAblink syllable finally.
• Template:IPAslink has two allophones: Template:IPAblink syllable initially and Template:IPAblink~Template:IPAblink~Template:IPAblink syllable finally.
• Voiced stops Template:IPAslink Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAslink, and Template:IPAslink only occur syllable initially. Plain and prenasalized voiced stops (i.e., Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink) are in free variation word initially. Voiced stops are nasalized word-medially between vowels and after non-nasal consonants. Template:IPAblink, a "voiced alveolar slightly retroflexed stop" is also heard word medially.
• Template:IPAslink is Template:IPAblink syllable initially and finally.
• Template:IPAslink is a "voiceless vocoid occurring word finally following a voiced vocoid of the same quality."
• Template:IPAslink is Template:IPAblink syllable initially and Template:IPAblink syllable finally. It becomes Template:IPAblink after a rounded vowel.
• Template:IPAslink is Template:IPAslink initially and finally.
• Semivowels Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink only occur syllable initially.

Vowels

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Low		Template:IPA link

Orthography

Sursurunga has fifteen consonants—Template:Angbr— and six vowels—Template:Angbr.

Template:Angbr is the velar nasal Template:IPAslink and Template:Angbr is the schwa.

Number

Sursurunga is famous for having a five-way grammatical number distinction. The numbers beside singular, dual, and plural have been called trial and quadral; however, these numbers, which only occur on pronouns, indicate a minimum of three and four, not exactly three and four the way the dual indicates exactly two. They are equivalent to "a few" and "several", and Corbett has called them (lesser) paucal and greater paucal. The trial cannot be used for dyadic kinship terms, whereas the quadral is used for two or three such pair relationships.

Emphatic pronouns

	Template:Gcl	Template:Gcl	Template:Gcl	Template:Gcl	Template:Gcl
Template:Gcl.Template:Gcl
Template:Gcl.Template:Gcl	—
Template:Gcl
Template:Gcl