small number of roots with long vowels which cannot be explained as the result of underlying vowel sequences, e.g. laan 'type of bamboo' vs. lan 'bones'. There are diphthongs /ia/, /iu/, /ui/, /ua/, which occur even within roots. The diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ do occur, but are more commonly realized as long vowels [eː] and [oː]. Phonotactics Qaqet's syllable structure can be summarized as . All consonants can occur at the onset of a syllable. Consonant clusters at the onset of a syllable usually consist of an obstruent followed by a sonorant, e.g. 'intensely', 'eagle'; but there are also clusters of a nasal and a liquid, as in 'cross'. In coda position, the plain stops /p t k/, the nasals /m n ɲ ŋ/, the fricative /s/ and the liquids /ɽ l/ can occur, but not the voiced stops /b d g/ or the lenited versions of the stops /β r ɣ/. Morphology and syntax Word classes in Qaqet include nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and particles. As in many Indo-European languages, adjectives share many properties with nouns, but they are still different enough to be considered their own word class. However, many roots can occur in different word classes without any derivational morphology. This process, known in linguistics as conversion, is reminiscent of English (e.g. 'to walk' and 'a walk'). The most striking feature of Qaqet nominal morphology is its noun class system: all nouns belong to one of eight classes, two of which are based on sex, the others on shape. Additionally, nouns are marked for number (singular, dual, and plural). Typologically unusual, some nouns have an unmarked plural, rather than singular form. Adjectives, demonstratives, pronouns and verbs agree with nouns with respect to noun class and number. Both nominal classification as well as the singular-dual-plural distinction are common in East Papuan Languages. Qaqet also has articles, but no case. Qaqet verbs distinguish aspect by using different verbal stems, and tense by using different subject indexes. They can also encode the object. Qaqet uses prepositions rather than postpositions. Just as in English, they can introduce arguments and adjuncts. They also frequently combine with verbs to form idiomatic meanings. There is also a dedicated class of particles, which are never obligatory but convey important discourse information. This is similar to languages like German. Word order is generally SVO. This fact, along with the use of prepositions, is rather unusual, since