Tobati, or Yotafa, is an Austronesian language spoken in Jayapura Bay in Papua province, Indonesia. It was once thought to be a Papuan language.[1] Notably, Tobati displays a very rare object-subject-verb word order.[2]
/f/ also shows allophony as [p]. However, it does not behave as a stop (see below).
Tobati has a five-vowel system of /aeiou/, realized as /aɛiɔʊ/ in closed syllables.
Phonotactics[]
Tobati permits 3 consonants in the onset, and at most a single consonant or a nasal-stop cluster in the coda.
Nasal-stop clusters only permit a nasal and a stop of the same PoA. For the /nd/ sequence, /n/ becomes dental [n̪]. Neither the bilabial, consisting of /b/ and the /f/ allophone [p], nor palatal nasal-stop clusters distinguish voice (i.e. they are [pm~bm] and [cɲ~d͡ʒɲ] respectively). The /Nk/ sequence voices to [ŋg].[2]