Rapoisi language

Konua, also known as Rapoisi, is a language indigenous to Bougainville, an island to the east of New Guinea spoken by indigenous Rapoisi people.

Konua
Rapoisi
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Bougainville
Native speakers	(3,500 cited 1998)[1]
Language family	North Bougainville Konua
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kyx
Glottolog	rapo1238

Orthography

Rapoisi language is written in Latin alphabet with 14 letters.

Rapoisi alphabet^[2]

Letters	Uppercase	A	B	E	G	H	I	K	O	P	R	S	T	U	’
	Lowercase	a	b	e	g	h	i	k	o	p	r	s	t	u
IPA		ɑ	β	e	ɣ	h	i	k	o	p	ɾ	s	t̪	u	ʔ

Vocabulary

Here is the vocabulary of Rapoisi language with 39 example words below.^[3]

№	Word	Meaning
1	ag, aru	I
2	bira	you
3	bioga, biru	we
11	arei	one
12	bo suku	two
19	atari	fish
21	kesu	dog
22	utuo	louse
23	evaita	tree
25	hara	leaf
28	kaparue	skin
30	parakoa	blood
31	reu	bone
34	reruo	horn
39	ubateo	ear
40	otei	eye
41	birao, iruba	nose
43	asi	tooth
47	ubiubi	knee
48	akapio	hand
53	aterariba	liver
54	era	drink
57	keke	see
58	ubara	hear
61	pi	die
66	luilui	come
72	isiro	sun
75	bapi, uo	water
77	aipo	stone
82	uhi	fire
85	ohopa	path
86	hukihuki	mountain
92	bogi	night
96	ueibara	new
100	ute	name

Pronouns

Müller (1954)^[4]

			A	S	O	Poss.
1st Person	Excl.	Singular	aga , aru	aga , aru	aga , aru	-ai
		Dual	ioka	ioka	ioka	-abi
		Plural	ioka	ioka	ioka	-abi
	Incl.	Dual	peka	peka	peka	-abi
		Plural	bioga	bioga	bioga	-abi
2nd Person	Singular		bira , biru	bira , biru	bira , biru	-ari
	Dual		mega	mega	mega	-abisi
	Plural		itarea	itarea	itarea	-abisi
3rd Person	Singular	Gender 1	ita	ita	ita	-ara
		Gender 2	ia	ia	ia	-ʔo
	Dual		siga	siga	siga	-ara
	Plural		pirio	pirio	pirio	-ara

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

Place Manner	Bilabial	Dento-Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p	t̪	k	ʔ
Fricative	β	s	ɣ	h
Tap		ɾ

• /p/ is often pronounced as [ɸ] word initially
• /t̪/ does not occur before /i/
• /β ɾ ɣ/ have the allophones [b d~l g] respectively. The nasal allophones [m n ŋ] occur utterance-initial.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
Low	ɑ

Further reading

• Müller, Adam. 1954. Grammatical notes on the Konua language. Posieux: Inst.

References

1. Konua at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. "Rapoisi Organised Phonology Data". SIL Global. 2014-12-23. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
3. "The ASJP Database - Wordlist Rapoisi". asjp.clld.org. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
4. "Rapoisi". pdb.simon.net.nz. Retrieved 2024-10-09.