Папуа Жаңа Гвинеядағы Кобон тілі

Language of Papua New Guinea

Kobon (pronounced , or ) is a language of Papua New Guinea. It has somewhere around 90–120 verbs. Kobon has a pandanus language, spoken when harvesting karuka.

Kobon is spoken in Madang Province and Western Highlands Province, north of Mount Hagen.

Monophthongal vowels are , diphthongs are and may be and word initially. is written and is written
Only and the diphthongs occur word initially, apart from the quotative particle, which is variably /a~e~o~ö/. occur syllable initially within a word. All vowels (including the diphthongs) occur syllable medially (in CVC syllables), syllable finally and at the ends of words. Many vowel sequences occur, including some with identical vowels.

Kobon is a subject–object–verb language. Singular, dual, and plural are distinguished in personal pronouns and kinship terminology. Like the other Kalam languages, Kobon is famous for having a closed set of very small number of verbs—perhaps less than 120 for the entire language. These verbs are combined other verbs, in serial verb constructions, and with nouns into phrases with specific meanings, much as one says "have dinner" rather than "dine" in English. This makes for an interesting window into semantics. One might expect that with a very limited set of verbs, their meanings would be quite general as have, do, be and go are in English. To a certain extent this is really the case, as there is for example only one verb of perception. That is, the same verb is used for see, hear, taste, smell, feel (both physically and emotionally), think, and understand (compare with "I see" for "I understand" in English). Another verb is used for making sound, whether it's speaking, singing, praying, crying, twigs breaking, rocks clattering, or water gurgling. However, some Kobon verbs are quite specific. There is one exception for sound, for example: there's a specific verb for calling a pig. There are also three verbs of pouring, depending on whether the thing being poured is solid, liquid, or food; and there is even a verb that means to quarter a cassowary.