Lakes Plain language spoken in Indonesia
Sikaritai (Sikwari) is a Lakes Plain language of Papua, Indonesia. It is named after "Sikari" village in Rafaer District, Mamberamo Raya Regency. Alternate names are "Aikwakai, Araikurioko, Ati, Tori, Tori Aikwakai."
It is spoken in Haya, Iri, and Sikari villages.
Sikaritai, Obokuitai, and Eritai constitute a dialect cluster.
Phonology.
The following discussion is based on Martin (1991).
Consonants.
This small consonant inventory is typical of Lakes Plain languages. The complete lack of nasals is also a feature of these languages.
There are however several notable allophonic variants:
Vowels.
Sikaritai has six vowels.
Many other Lakes Plain languages have developed a series of extra high "fricativized" vowels from the loss of a final consonant. In Sikaritai the final consonants have been retained; however, extra-high [i] and [u] appear as allophones of /i/ and /u/ before final /k/ and /d/. Martin postulates that Sikaritai is in the process of developing contrastive fricativized vowels as other Lakes Plain languages have done.
Tone.
The language has a two-height tone system with H and L tone. More than one tonal element can appear on a single syllable.
Syllables.
The syllable template is (C)(C)V(V)(C).
References.
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