Yaren Rotokas

**Rotokas** yare ne na Arewacin Bougainville wanda kusan mutane 4,320 ke magana a tsibirin Bougainville, tsibirin da ke gabashin New Guinea, wanda yake wani ɓangare na Papua New Guinea.  cewar Allen da Hurd (1963), akwai yare guda uku da aka gano: Central Rotokas ("Rotokas da ya dace"), Aita Rotokas, da Pipipaia: tare da ƙarin yaren da ake magana a ƙauyen da ba a san shi ba. Tsakiyar Rotokas  fi shahara saboda ƙananan kayan aikin sauti da kuma samun watakila mafi ƙanƙanta haruffa na zamani.

## Fasahar sauti
Yaren tsakiya na Rotokas yana da ɗayan ƙananan kayan aiki na duniya. (An yi iƙirarin yaren Pirahã ne kawai yana da ƙarancin.) Harshen ya ƙunshi haruffa goma sha biyu, wanda ke wakiltar alamomi goma sha ɗaya. Rotokas yana da bambancin Tsawon wasula (watau, duk wasula suna da ɗan gajeren lokaci da dogon lokaci), amma in ba haka ba ba ba su da siffofi na musamman kamar sautin bambanci ko damuwa.

### Sautin da aka yi amfani da shi
Abubuwan da ke tattare da su sun haɗa da wurare masu zuwa: Bilabal, alveolar, da velar, kowannensu yana da murya da kuma murya. Mambobin murya guda uku na tsakiya na tsakiya Rotokas suna da bambancin allophonic. Sabili da haka, yana da wahala a sami zaɓi na alamomin IPA don wakiltar su wanda ba ya yaudara. Harshen da ba su da murya sune harsunan da ba su ba da murya:  Robinson (2006) ya ba da raho cewa t yana da allophone  a cikin yaren Aita kafin  . Firchow & Firchow sun ba da rahoton haka ga Rotokas na Tsakiya,  kodayake Robinson ya yi jayayya cewa ba haka ba ne saboda yaduwar harsuna biyu tare da Tok Pisin.  Maganganun murya sune saiti na allophonic , , da .

Yana da ban mamaki ga harsuna su rasa phonemes wanda ainihin allophone shine hanci.  & Firchow (1969) suna da wannan don faɗi game da rashin sautin hanci a cikin yaren Rotokas na Tsakiya (wanda suke kira Rotokas Daidai): "A cikin Rotokas Daidaitaccen [...] hanci ba a jin sautin sai dai idan mai magana na asali yana ƙoƙarin yin koyi da yunkurin baƙo na yin magana da Rotokas. A wannan yanayin ana amfani da hanci a kwaikwayon ko mai magana da shi ko a'a. "

Robinson shows that in the Aita dialect of Rotokas there is a three-way distinction required between voiced, voiceless, and nasal consonants. Hence, this dialect has nine consonant phonemes versus six for Rotokas Proper (though no minimal pairs were found between  and ). The voiced and nasal consonants in Aita are collapsed in Central Rotokas, i.e., it is possible to predict the Central Rotokas form from the Aita Rotokas form, but not vice versa. For example,  'day' has  in both Central and Aita Rotokas, but the second person plural pronoun in Central Rotokas starts with , , but with  in its Aita cognate. Furthermore, Aita was found to have minimal pairs for the voiced labial and alveolar consonants:  'time' vs.  'taste'. This suggests that the consonant inventory of the ancestor language of Aita and Central Rotokas was more like Aita, and that the small phoneme inventory of Central Rotokas is a more recent innovation.

Babu wani dalili na gabatar da halaye na sauti na magana (misali, plosive, fricative, nasal, tap) a cikin Rotokas na Tsakiya. Maimakon haka, bambancin binary mai sauƙi na murya ya isa.

Tunda bincike na phonemic ya fi damuwa da bambance-bambance, ba tare da cikakkun bayanai ba, ana iya amfani da alamomin murya: tsayawa, d, ɡz don Tsakiyar Rotokas, da nasal, n, ŋz don yaren Aita.  (A cikin haruffa da aka gabatar don Rotokas na Tsakiya, an rubuta waɗannan ːv, r, gː. Koyaya, d, gː zai yi aiki daidai.) A cikin ginshiƙi da ke ƙasa, ana amfani da allophones mafi yawanci don wakiltar phonemes.

### Sautin sautin
Sautin na iya zama mai tsawo (rubuce sau biyu) ko gajere. Ba a tabbatar da ko waɗannan suna wakiltar sautuna goma ko biyar ba; wato, ko wasula 'tsawon' sautunan magana ne daban-daban ko kuma jerin wasula biyu kawai waɗanda suka faru iri ɗaya.  Aita ya bayyana ba ya rarrabe tsawon a cikin wasula kwata-kwata. Sauran jerin wasula sun zama ruwan dare gama gari, kamar yadda yake a cikin kalmar  .

Ba ya bayyana cewa damuwa tana da sauti, amma wannan ba tabbatacce ba ne. Kalmomi tare da 2 ko 3 syllables ana jaddada su a kan farko syllable; waɗanda ke da 4 ana jaddana su a kan na farko da na uku; kuma waɗanda ke da 5 ko fiye a kan antepenultimate (na uku-na ƙarshe). Wannan yana da rikitarwa ta hanyar dogon wasula, kuma ba duk maganganun magana suna bin wannan tsari ba.

## Manazarta