Siar-Lak language
Siar, also known as Lak, Lamassa, or Likkilikki, is an Austronesian language spoken in New [Ireland Province] in the southern island point of Papua New Guinea. Lak is in the Patpatar-Tolai sub-group, which then falls under the New Ireland-Tolai group in the Western Oceanic language, a sub-group within the Austronesian family. The Siar people keep themselves sustained and nourished by fishing and gardening. The native people call their language ep warwar anun dat, which means 'our language'.Phonology
Siar-Lak has fifteen consonants and seven vowels.
| Front | Central | Back |
| High | | | |
| Mid-high | | | |
| Mid | | | |
| Low | | | |
The vowel can be thought to be pronounced in between the high vowel and the mid vowel, as well as being in between the high vowel and the mid vowel, according to native speakers.Stress and phonotactics
Stress is placed on the last syllable in each word. Examples of words broken down into syllables and translated include:
| Siar-Lak | English |
| mam.su.ai | 'sneeze' |
| ar.ngas | 'mountain peak' |
| far.bón | 'praise' |
| fet.rar | 'young woman' |
Syllable structures
Siar-Lak contains four different types of syllable patterns in its vocabulary: V, VC, CV, and CVC. Some examples include:
| | Siar Lak | English |
| V | | u | 'you' |
| | a.im | 'to plant' |
| | a.i.nói | 'to fill' |
| VC | | ep | 'article' |
| | ar.ngas | 'mountain' |
| | la.un | 'to live' |
| CV | | ma | 'now' |
| | kó.bót | 'morning' |
| | ka.bu.suk | 'my nose' |
| | la.tu | 'tomorrow' |
| CVC | | póp | 'puddle' |
| | gósgós | 'to dance' |
| | la.man.tin | 'great' |
| | ka.kau | 'to crawl' |
Orthography
Siar-Lak is written in the Latin script. Most letters correspond directly to a single phoneme and vice versa. However, the consonant phoneme is spelled ⟨f⟩ at the start of a word, ⟨h⟩ at the end of a syllable, and not spelled at all when it is not pronounced. When a word-final needs to be distinguished from, it is spelled ⟨ii⟩. /e̝/ and /o̝/ are spelled ⟨é⟩ and ⟨ó⟩ respectively. /w/ and /j/ are spelled ⟨u⟩ and ⟨i⟩ in syllable codas.Numerical system
| Siar | English |
| i tik ep bónót | Ten |
| i ru ru bónót | Twenty |
| i tól ep bónót | Thirty |
| i at ep bónót | Forty |
| i lim ep bónót | Fifty |
| i won ep bónót | Sixty |
| i is ep bónót | Seventy |
| i wol ep bónót | Eighty |
| i siwok ep bónót | Ninety |
| i tik ep mar | One hundred |
Pronouns
Example sentence:Verb phrases
Two types of verb phrases include intransitive and transitive verbs. An intransitive verb is used when there is no direct object, while a transitive verb is used when there is a direct object action taking place. An intransitive verb for 'eat' would be angan, while a transitive verb for 'eat' would be yan.