Rotokas

Facts

  • Language: Rotokas
  • Alternate names:
  • Language code: roo
  • Language family:
  • Number of speakers:
  • Script:

More information:

    Background

    Rotokas is a language (part of the East Papuan language phylum) spoken by some 4000 people in Bougainville, an island to the east of New Guinea, part of Papua New Guinea. Central Rotokas is most notable for its extremely small phonemic inventory and for having perhaps the smallest modern alphabet; the alphabet consists of twelve letters: A E G I K O P R S T U V.

    Verb

    The main part of Rotokas sentence is the verb. The sentence may be long an complicated, but there can be very short sentences too. Typically a simple sentence contains a verb root along with modifiers.

    rootcontinuing actionsubjecttime
    pau-pa-ra-vere
    sitcontinuingInear future

    pauparavere 'I will be sitting'

    Verblist