A Grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako Mouton Grammar Library 52
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A Grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako Mouton Grammar Library 52 Editors Georg Bossong Bernard Comrie Matthew Dryer De Gruyter Mouton A Grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako by 0 Ashild N cess and Even Hovdhaugen De Gruyter Mouton ISBN 978-3-11-023826-6 e-ISBN 978-3-11-023827-3 ISSN 0933-7636 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data N <'eSS, Asbild. A grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako I by Asbild N<'tss and Even Hovdhaugen. p. em. - (Mouton grammar library; 52) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-11-023826-6 (alk. paper) 1. Pileni language. 2. Pileni language - Grammar. 3. Poly- nesian languages. 4. Solomon Islands - Languages. 1. Hovd- haugen, Even. II. Title. PL6488N25 2011 499' .46-dc23 2011017828 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbihliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. © 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, G6ttingen w Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Preface Although it was not the original plan, it is perhaps fitting that this book has ended up as a collaborative work, We have been working on the V aeakau Taurnako language - back then known as Pileni - since 1997, when Even Hovdhaugen made his first exploratory field trip to Pileni island, On his re turn, he found one of his students in desperate need of a topic for an MA the sis, and so began a collaboration that would last for over a decade, We made a joint field trip to Pileni in 1998, and Ashild N:ess' MA thesis on the language was completed later that year, It appeared in published form in 2000, and several papers on various aspects of the language followed, An opportunity for further collaboration presented itself in 2002, when the research project "Identity Matters: Movement and Place", of which Even was one of the initiators, received funding from the Norwegian Research CounciL One of the aims of this project was to examine the language contact situation in the Reef Islands, Ashild, who joined the project in 2004, was to work on describing the Aiwoo language of the Main Reef Islands, while Even would continue work on Vaeakau-Taumako and produce, among other things, a ref erence grammar. For the first couple of years, work proceeded according to this plan; but af ter our last field trip in late 2005, it became clear that deteriorating health would no longer permit Even to keep up the detailed analysis work and inten sive writing required for a reference granunar, Ashild took over work on the manuscript in 2007, and has done most of the writing and a considerable por tion of the analysis work in constant consultation with Even, Thus this book is a genuine joint work, and a happy conclusion to many years of collaboration which both of us have enjoyed inuuensely, Most of our work on this granunar has been funded by the aforementioned "Identity Matters" project, NFR project no, 148717, The later stages of Ashild' s work were funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) project "Breaking the Time Barrier: Structural Traces of the Sahul Past", and the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo provided office space during this period of work, We gratefully acknowledge this support, We wish to extend our warmest thanks to all the Vaeakau-Taurnako speak ers who have given generously of their time, patience and linguistic insights in order to provide us with the material for this granunar, Many have contrib uted, and not all can be named, but the following people in particular have provided invaluable help and support (the list is in alphabetical order): Lupa- vi Preface lyn Cherry, John Hatia, Cruso Kaveia, Henry Leni, Silas Loa, Mathilde Lon golua, Edward Makin, Jenny Mapolu, Michael Mapolu, Charles Bice Mete, Noel Hatu, Selwyn Skito, Gabriel Tavake, Christian Tekilamata, Aliki Toitua, Ellen Uka, Jack V ahi, John V ahi, Mostyn Vane, Sera V aoli, We also wish to thank Ben Hepworth for practical help in the field, Dan and Brenda Boerger for friendship, milkshakes and helpfulness in all kinds of ways, and Alex Fran9ois for making the maps in Chapter L Ashild thanks Atle N:ess for secretarial help and Trond Larsen for shoul der massages and all-round support; Michael Dunn and Ger Reesink for al lowing me time to work on the granuuar during my employment with the Sa hul project; and Pill Eriksen for reading and commenting at the near-final stage; but most of all, thanks to Even for getting me into this business of de scriptive linguistics to begin with, and for being such a great field companion, critic, teacher, colleague and friend, From Even, a special thank you to the children of Nifiloli who came every morning at 6 o'clock with beautiful flowers which they put in empty beer bottles and placed on my working table, and who would drop in every evening to chat or to help with my work, Oslo, March 2011 Ashild N:ess Even Hovdhaugen Table of contents Preface ............................................................................................................... v Abbreviations .............................................................................................. xviii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................. 1 1.1. Language, location, and speakers ...................................................... 1 1.1.1. The natural enviromnent. ................................................................... 1 1.1.2. Social organization ............................................................................ 5 1.1.3. The name of the language .................................................................. 8 1.2. Language affiliation and history ....................................................... 8 1.2.1. Genealogical classification ................................................................ 8 1.2.2. History ............................................................................................... 9 1.2.3. Vaeakau-Taurnako and other Polynesian languages ........................ 12 1.3. Previous work .................................................................................. 14 1.4. Current language situation ............................................................... 15 1.4.1. Dialects and style levels ................................................................... 15 1.4.2. Sociolinguistic setting ...................................................................... 16 1.5. Data .................................................................................................. 19 1.6. Typological profile .......................................................................... 20 Chapter 2: Phonology ................................................................................... 22 2.1. Introduction ...................................................................................... 22 2.2. Syllable structure and stress ............................................................ 22 2.3. Vowels ............................................................................................. 23 2.3.1. Basic vowel inventory ..................................................................... 23 2.3.1.1. Vowel quality ................................................................................... 23 2.3.1.2. Vowel length and diphthongization ................................................. 26 2.3.2. Vowel sequences ............................................................................. 29 2.3.3. Vowel assimilation .......................................................................... 30 2.3.4. Vowel altemations ........................................................................... 31 2.3.4.1. a - o ............................................................................................... 32 2.3.4.2. i- e .................................................................................................. 32 2.3.4.3. e-o ................................................................................................. 33 2.3.4.4. u- i .................................................................................................. 33 2.3.4.5. Other vowel altemations .................................................................. 33 2.4. Consonants ....................................................................................... 34 2.4.1. Basic consonant inventory ............................................................... 34 2.4.2. Aspiration ........................................................................................ 35 viii Table of contents 2.4.3. Stops..................................... ............................................................ 37 2.4.3.1. Unvoiced stops ................................................................................. 37 2.4.3.2. Voiced stops ..................................................................................... 39 2.4.4. Nasals ............................................................................................... 40 2.4.5. Liquids ............................................................................................. 41 2.4.6. Fricatives .......................................................................................... 41 2.4.7. The drift towards /h/ ......................................................................