Vaeakau-Taumako language

Vaeakau-Taumako (formerly known as Pileni) is a Polynesian language spoken in some of the Reef Islands as well as in the Taumako Islands (also known as the Duff Islands) in the Temotu province of Solomon Islands.

The language is spoken throughout the Taumako Islands, while in the Reef Islands, it is spoken on Aua, Matema, Nifiloli, Nupani, Nukapu, and Pileni. Speakers are thought to be descendants of people from Tuvalu.

Vaeakau-Taumako was described by linguists Even Hovdhaugen and Åshild Næss, in the form of a dictionary and a grammar.

Classification

Vaeakau-Taumako is a Polynesian outlier. Within that group, it has traditionally been considered one of the Futunic branch, but a 2008 study (exclusively based on lexical evidence) concluded that this membership is weakly supported.

Phonology

Vowels

Vaeakau-Taumako does not vary from the standard Polynesian and Austronesian vowel system, featuring five vowels that can be used either in a long or short form. Short vowels found in word-final syllables are frequently devoiced or dropped, but long vowels in the same position are always stressed. There is little allophonic variation between vowel pronunciations.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Vowels

! !!Front !!Central !!Back

! Close

| || ||

! Mid

| || ||

! Open

| || ||

Vowel sequences in Vaeakau-Taumako are typically not treated as diphthongs, as they are not fully reduplicated, as shown in the word "holauhola". This is despite the vowels in the original word being pronounced like a diphthong.

Aspirated sounds are characteristic of the language, and are typically strong and audible. However, the use of aspirated sounds varies across dialects, enough that it is difficult to identify a consistent pattern aside from noting they always occur at the start of stressed syllables.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! colspan="2" |

! Labial

! Coronal

! Dorsal

! rowspan="2" | Nasal

! plain

! aspirated

! rowspan="3" | Plosive

! unvoiced

! aspirated

! voiced

! colspan="2" | Fricative

! rowspan="2" | Approximant

! plain

! aspirated

Morphology

Pronouns

Vaeakau-Taumako pronouns distinguish between 1st, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns. There are some inclusive and exclusive distinctions, and variations for singular, dual and plural in all cases. There are no gender distinctions. There is variation in the pronoun system for the dialects of Vaeakau-Taumako which can become quite complex, so for simplicity, only the general forms are recorded here.

Independent personal pronouns

There are two distinctive base sets of independent personal pronouns in Vaeakau-Taumako. The standard forms are used for formal occasions and recorded text, while the colloquial forms are typically found in informal, everyday conversation.

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2" colspan="2" |

! rowspan="2" | Singular

! colspan="2" | Dual

! colspan="2" | Plural

! standard || colloquial

! rowspan="2" | 1st person

! inclusive

| rowspan="2" | iau, au

| thaua

| haua

| thatou, thatu

| hatou, hatu

! exclusive

| mhuaua

| mihatou, mhatu

! colspan="2" | 2nd person

| koe

| khoulua, kholua

| houlua, holua

| khoutou, khotou

| houtou

! colspan="2" | 3rd person

| ia

| lhaua

| haua

| lhatou, lhatu

| hatou, hatu

Bound subject pronouns

The language also features bound subject pronouns which act as clitics to the tense-aspect-mood marker of the verb of the constituent. They are not obligatory to use. The presence of the "u" has free variation by the choice of the speaker, but they are typically less prevalent in the colloquial forms.

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2" colspan="2" |

! rowspan="2" | Singular

! colspan="2" | Dual

! colspan="2" | Plural

! standard || colloquial

! rowspan="2" | 1st person

! inclusive

| rowspan="2" | u=, ku=

| tha(u)=

| ha=

| that(u)=

| hat(u)=

! exclusive

| mha(u)=

| mhat(u)=

! colspan="2" | 2nd person

| ko=

| khol(u)=

| hol(u)=

| khot(u)=

| hot(u)=

! colspan="2" | 3rd person

| ø

| lha(u)=

| ha=

| lhat(u)=

| hat(u)=

Hortative pronouns

The dual, plural and 2nd person singular have specific pronouns used in imperative and hortative sentences.

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" |

! Singular

! Dual

! Plural

! rowspan="2" | 1st person

! inclusive

| rowspan="2" |

| ta

| tatu, hatu, tatou

! exclusive

| ma

| matu

! colspan="2" | 2nd person

| ko

| lu

| tu

! colspan="2" | 3rd person

| la

| latu, hatu

Emphatic co-referential pronouns

When the subject and direct object of a sentence are the same thing, repetition of the independent pronoun in place of both argument positions is typically used. However, there is a set of emphatic coreferential pronouns used for the direct object to refer to someone or a group of people acting alone.

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" |

! Singular

! Dual

! Plural

! rowspan="2" | 1st person

! inclusive

| rowspan="2" | okhoiau

| okhitaua

| okithatou

! exclusive

| okhimaua

| okimhatou

! colspan="2" | 2nd person

| okhoe

| okhoulua

| okhoutou

! colspan="2" | 3rd person

| okhoia

| okhilaua

| okilhatou

The general pronoun nga

The word nga functions as a pronoun with specific use. It is a third person pronoun, but lacks specification for number, and is used to refer to both singular and plural referents. It typically is an anaphoric reference to a previously mentioned referent.

Possession

Control

While it is common for Polynesian languages to distinguish between alienability and inalienability with a and o possessives, this is not the case for Vaeakau-Taumako. This distinction exists, however it instead marks control – not of the possessed item itself, but of the possessive relationship.

A-possessives

Relationships that can be initiated or terminated freely, such as items that can be bought, sold or given away at will are marked with the a-possessive.

Prenominal possessive pronouns

Prenominal possessive pronouns occur directly preceding the possessed nouns, and are typically used for inalienable relationships, such as kinship terms and body parts. Prenominal possessive pronouns distinguish between singular, dual and plural of the possessor. The singular possessive forms make an additional distinction between singular and plural of the possessed entity, and encode the a- or o-possessive directly. The dual and plural possessor forms are combined with the possessive prepositions a and o to express this distinction, or they may occur without a preposition.

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" |

! Singular

! Dual

! Plural

! rowspan="2" | 1st person

! inclusive

| rowspan="2" | aku, oku

| taua

| tatou

! exclusive

| maua

| matou

! colspan="2" | 2nd person

| au, ou

| aulua, oulua

| autou, outou

! colspan="2" | 3rd person

| ana, ona

| laua

| latou

Possessive suffixes

The possessive suffixes -ku (1st person), -u (2nd person) and -na (3rd person) apply to a restricted set of kinship nouns: tama/mha 'father', hina 'mother', thoka 'same-sex sibling', thupu 'grandparent', and mokupu 'grandchild'. These nouns cannot occur without possessive marking, they require either a possessive suffix or, in the dual and plural, a postnominal possessive pronoun. An alternative construction is for these nouns to take the 3rd person possessive suffix -na in combination with a prenominal possessive pronoun or possessive prepositional phrase. The form in -na must in such cases be understood as a neutral or unmarked form, since it may combine with a pronoun of any person and number; but a form in -na without any further possessive marking is unambiguously 3rd person. Nouns other than those previously mentioned do not take possessive suffixes, but instead combine with possessive pronouns.

Negation

Vaeako-Taumako displays negation in prohibitions (prohibitive, irrealis, imperfective, admonitive), statements (verbal and non-verbal) polar questions and noun phrases. Negation morphemes behave similarly to verbs in many respects although they do not take tense-aspect-mood markers or form independent predicates. However, there are instances of their taking complement clauses and for this reason negation morphemes might be considered a sub-class of verb.

Prohibition

Prohibitive clauses may be divided into two. Prohibitive auā, (equal to the English 'don't') and Admonitive na. Prohibitives pattern themselves in similar ways and are most frequently positioned cause initially. Admonitives behave and distribute slightly differently as will be illustrated below.

Negated clauses appear with only a small range of tense-aspect-mood markers. Prohibitive clauses often display no tense-aspect-mood marker at all, if they do, the markers are either na irrealis or me prescriptive. Negated declarative clauses typically occur with either perfective ne or imperfective no, with other options only marginally represented in collected data.

Prohibitive auā

auā appears clause-initially, however discourse particles such as nahilā ('take care, make sure') may precede it. Other grammatical morphemes such as articles or markers of tense, aspect or mood may not precede it which excludes auā from the verb category of Vaeakao-Taumako.

Contrasting this, the 2nd person dual or plural subjects attract the irrealis marker na to create a prohibitive clause.

However na also has a second function, it acts to point out the consequences of disobeying the order. In this role the na often appears without me, creating a clause without tense-aspect-mood marking.

As in the case of auā modifying particles, which are traditionally found after verbs, may appear following siai. An example of this is loa which is an emphatic marker.

For example, siai loa.

A further example is the addition of po which generally serves to connect a complement clause.

sikiai, hikiai 'not yet'

sikiai, hikiai (where sikiai is the formal written expression of spoken hikiai) appears in the same formation as above siai except it proceeds the preverbal argument and precedes any tense-aspect-mood markers. It appears less frequently and is often accompanied by the perfective marker ne.