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 , which means 'our language'.
Siar-Lak has fifteen consonants and seven vowels.
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 is placed on the last syllable in each word. Examples of words broken down into syllables and translated include:
Siar-Lak contains four different types of syllable patterns in its vocabulary: V (vowel), VC (vowel-consonant), CV (consonant-vowel), and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant). Some examples include:
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 â¨fâ© at the start of a word, â¨hâ© 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 â¨iiâ©. /eÃÂ/ and /oÃÂ/ are spelled â¨éâ© and â¨óâ© respectively. /w/ and /j/ are spelled â¨uâ© and â¨iâ© in syllable codas.
Example sentence:
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 , while a transitive verb for 'eat' would be .