Loniu language

Loniu is an Austronesian language spoken along the southern coast of Los Negros Island in the Manus Province, immediately east of Manus Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. Loniu is spoken in the villages of Loniu and Lolak, and there are estimated to be 450–500 native speakers, although some live in other Manus villages or on the mainland of Papua New Guinea.^[2]

Loniu
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Los Negros Island, Manus Province
Native speakers	780 (2000)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Admiralty Islands Eastern Admiralty Islands Manus West Manus Loniu–Mokerang Loniu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	los
Glottolog	loni1238

Loniu generally fits with most of the observations made about Oceanic languages, specifically the Admiralty Islands languages.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} The six morphosyntactic features of 'Type B' Oceanic Languages (which include the Admiralties languages) as noted by Ross are found in Loniu. The language is essentially SVO and contains prepositions.

Phonology

Consonant Phonemes

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p	t		k
Rounded stop	pw
Affricate			tʃ
Fricative		s
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Rounded nasal	mw
Lateral Approximant		l
Trill		r
Approximant	w		j

Vowel Phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid tense	e		o
Mid lax	ɛ		ɔ

References

Notes

1. Loniu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Hamel (1994)
3. Capell, Arthur (1971). The Austronesian languages of Australian New Guinea. The Hague: Mouton. pp. 240–340.
4. Capell, Arthur (1976). Features of Austronesian languages in the New Guinea area in general in contrast with other Austronesian languages of Melanesia. Canberra.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
5. Capell, Arthur (1976). General picture of Austronesian languages, New Guinea area. Canberra.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
6. Healey, Alan (1976). Austronesian languages: Admiralty Islands area. Canberra.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
7. Ross, M.D. (1988). "Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of Western Melanesia". Pacific Linguistics. C-98.

Sources

• Hamel, Patricia J. (1993). "Serial verbs in Loniu and an evolving preposition". Oceanic Linguistics. 32 (1): 111–132. doi:10.2307/3623099. JSTOR 3623099.
• Hamel, Patricia J. (1994). A Grammar and Lexicon of Loniu, Papua New Guinea. Pacific Linguistics Series C-103. Canberra: The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-C103. hdl:1885/145798.

External links

• Kaipuleohone's Robert Blust collection includes written and recorded materials from Loniu