Lala language (Papua New Guinea)

The Lala language contrasts five vowel qualities. The front vowels are always short, while the back (or non-front) vowels are always long. Hence, the vowels are long /a/, short /e/, short /i/, long /o/, and long /u/. Vowel pairs are au, ei, io, oe, oi, and ou.

The following consonant phonemes are distinctive in the Lala language:

The fricative /h/ only occurs in the words hosi 'horse' and Hulaha 'Hula people'. Consonants /s/ and /t/ were probably originally pronounced as [ts]. Introduced /s/ can be heard in the name Saka and in sisima 'ship'. Introduced /t/ appears in boti 'boat'.

Stress usually falls on the second-to-last syllable of a word. It shifts when a syllable is added to a word. In some words no apparent stress can be heard, except in combination. The stress can also be altered when the word is shouted.

Simple present, simple past, and present continuous tenses marked on subject person markers. The markers a , o , ka , de , and e are placed after a noun to indicate these three tenses.

Past continuous tense uses the subject person markers lau a'o , oni o'o , i'a' e'o , ita ka'o , lai-lai a'o, oi-oi , i'a de'o. Remote past tense uses the marker ani. Future tense uses the subject markers lau ba, oni bo, i'a be, ita eka, lai-lai ba, oi-oi bo, and i'a be.

Object suffixes are often used with transitive verbs. These object suffixes are u , mu , a , i'a , ta , lai-mai , mu'i. Because the object pronoun usually comes in order after the subject pronoun, the object suffix is sometimes dropped without confusing the meaning. If the object pronoun comes first because of emphasis, the correct object suffix must be used to make the meaning clear.

The causative prefix va- changes a root to a causative verb or noun. An example of this is va'ika 'to show', which is based on the root ika 'to look'.

The nominalizaing prefix i- changes words to nouns. An example of this is ivaku 'woven', from vaku 'to weave'.

The prefix vi- does not take the object suffixes and is not used with the causative va-. Nor does the duplication of the verb root occur with vi-.

Negative modifiers are the general negator si'a 'not', asi'i 'no', and asido'o 'not yet'. Verbal modifiers of manner and time are presented in the following two charts.

The Lala language distinguished alienable from inalienable possession, the latter of which refers to relatives, parts of the body, and close extensions of the body.

Some nouns can be pluralized by reduplication. Examples of this are manu 'bird' and manumanu 'birds', and vato 'girl' and vavato 'girls'.

There are exceptions to this rule, for example the reduplicated word ate'ate 'woman' is singular, while the corresponding plural form is simpler a'ate 'women'.

The following clause types can be distinguished:

• Purpose clause. E.g. Motuka itavana ounai lai a da'a tauni. 'We went to the town to buy a truck.' In this sentence the stated purpose is to buy a truck.
• Reason clause. E.g. Bo vina'ula kakamu be badu makaumuna. 'Work hard lest your father get cross.' In this sentence the reason is to avoid the father's getting cross.
• Coordinate clause. E.g. Da'a sinamu dulu'a. 'Go and help your mother.' In this sentence the two actions of going and helping your mother are conjoined.
• Time clause. E.g. Lamu be aku mulinai eka aniva. 'After the rain stops we'll go hunting.' The important word to note in this sentence is "after". The use of the word after makes the listener know when the action can or should be taken place.