Nukuria language

Nuguria, or Nukuria, is a Polynesian Outlier language spoken by approximately 550 people on Nuguria, in the eastern islands of Papua New Guinea.

Classification

Nukuria is a Polynesian language, part of the Austronesian language family.

The Nukuria language is closely related to other nearby languages such as Nukumanu, Takuu, Nukuoro, and Luangiua.

Status

The language was taught in primary schools on Nuguria and was used for daily communications between adults and children.

Research on the language (as well as the location it is spoken) is scarce. Past research stated Nuguria was at risk of endangerment; at that point it was still being passed to children. However, recent research indicates that Nukuria is now most likely an extinct language.

Phonology

The Nukuria language's alphabet contains five vowels: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, and fifteen consonants: /p/, /b/, /m/, /f/, /v/, /t/, /s/, /n/, /l/, /r/, /k/, /g/, /ŋ/, /w/, /h/.

Grammar

There is a distinct scarceness of research on the grammar and alphabet of the Nukuria language, but, as with many Austronesian languages, Nukuria has a subject-verb-object sentence structure.

References

Uses material from the Wikipedia article Nukuria language, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.