The Paamese Language of Vanuatu
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ISSN: 0023-1959 Vol. 34 No. 1, 2016
Language & Linguistics in Melanesia Vol. 34 No. 1, 2016 ISSN: 0023-1959 Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea ISSN: 0023-1959 Vol. 34 No. 1, 2016 www.langlxmelanesia.com www.langlxmelanesia.com www.langlxmelanesia.com Language & Linguistics in Melanesia Vol. 34 No. 1, 2016 ISSN: 0023-1959 An Account of Possession in Larevet Julie Barbour University of Waikato [email protected] Abstract This paper presents a first analysis of the Larevet language of central Malakula, Vanuatu, focusing on its possessive system. I locate the analysis within the literature on possession in the Oceanic language family broadly, seeking to understand how the synchronic system re- lates to both typological understandings within the family, and the possessive system recon- structed for Proto Oceanic. Drawing on a corpus of communicative and elicited language as evidence, I demonstrate that Larevet displays many features of a canonical Oceanic language, and that where changes have occurred, these align well with observations of possession in related languages of Malakula. Keywords: Malakula, Larevet, Possession, Oceanic, Alienability 1. Introduction The Larevet language (also referred to as Laravat, Larë vat and Larevat) is spoken in a village of the same name, on the northwestern coast of Malakula Island in Vanuatu. Unpublished data from the 2009 census puts the population of Larevet at 244.1 The village is gradually transitioning to Bislama as the dominant language of communication. The community is in- volved in the early phases of a long-term language documentation project, and I have under- taken brief periods of field work with Larevet speakers from 2013 onwards. -
Bislama Informational Report
Rhode Island College M.Ed. In TESL Program Language Group Specific Informational Reports Produced by Graduate Students in the M.Ed. In TESL Program In the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development Language Group: Bislama Author: Melissa Schuessler Program Contact Person: Nancy Cloud ([email protected]) By: Melissa Schuessler TESL 539 Spring 2011 Where is Bislama Spoken? Bislama is widely spoken in Vanuatu, which is an independent republic located in the southwest Pacific, between Fiji and Australia, with a population of about 170,000. http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/oceania/vu.htm Bislama Language Facts With more than 100 local languages in Vanuatu, along with English and French, Bislama (Pidgin English) is used as a vital communication tool. It allows the 40% who were educated in French to talk to the 60% who were educated in English. There are about 6,200 native speakers of Bislama, and 200,000 people who speak it as a second language. The language exists with only 2500 words (English and French each have more than 35,000 words). Source: http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/bislama.html Bislama is a Dialect of: Melanesian Pidgin Some other dialects of Melanesian Pidgin are: . Tok Pisin, spoken in Papua New Guinea . Pijin, spoken in the Solomon Islands Only in Vanuatu is the language of Bislama declared by the constitution to be the national language. Source: http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/bislama.html Vocabulary: The major lexifier for Bislama is English, with words such as brij for ‘bridge’ and buluk for ‘cow’ (from bullock). -
Acoustic Evidence for Right-Edge Prominence in Nafsana)
...................................ARTICLE Acoustic evidence for right-edge prominence in Nafsana) Rosey Billington,b) Janet Fletcher,c) Nick Thieberger,d) and Ben Volchok ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3052, Australia ABSTRACT: Oceanic languages are often described as preferring primary stress on penultimate syllables, but detailed surveys show that many different types of prominence patterns have been reported across and within Oceanic language families. In some cases, these interact with segmental and phonotactic factors, such as syllable weight. The range of Oceanic prominence patterns is exemplified across Vanuatu, a linguistically diverse archipelago with over 130 languages. However, both impressionistic and instrumentally-based descriptions of prosodic patterns and their correlates are limited for languages of this region. This paper investigates prominence in Nafsan, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu for which previous observations of prominence differ. Acoustic and durational results for disyl- labic and trisyllabic Nafsan words show a clear pattern of higher fundamental frequency values in final syllables, regardless of vowel length, pointing towards a preference for prominence at the right edge of words. Short vowels also show centralisation in penultimate syllables, providing supporting evidence for right-edge prominence and informing the understanding of vowel deletion processes in Nafsan. VC 2020 Acoustical Society of America. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0000995 (Received 3 May 2019; revised 15 September 2019; accepted 16 October 2019; published online 30 April 2020) [Editor: Benjamin V. Tucker] Pages: 2829–2844 I. INTRODUCTION empirically. The present study is part of a wider project using instrumental phonetic approaches to investigate vari- This paper investigates prominence in Nafsan (South ous aspects of Nafsan phonology. -
Resident / Humanitarian Coordinator Report on the Use of CERF Funds
Resident / Humanitarian Coordinator Report on the use of CERF funds RESIDENT / HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR REPORT ON THE USE OF CERF FUNDS VANUATU RAPID RESPONSE CYCLONE 2015 RESIDENT/HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR Ms. Osnat Lubrani REPORTING PROCESS AND CONSULTATION SUMMARY a. Please indicate when the After Action Review (AAR) was conducted and who participated. An AAR was organized and chaired by OCHA on behalf of the Resident Coordinator (RC) through the Pacific Humanitarian Team (PHT) on 19 January 2016. The lessons learning exercise was attended by PHT members, recipients of CERF funding and others. Representation was from UNICEF, WHO, FAO, UNFPA, IOM, WFP, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, UNDSS and OCHA. Similarly, the Government of Vanuatu convened a two-day workshop on lessons learnt from response to TC Pam on 24 and 25 June 2015 in Port Villa, Vanuatu. This was also attended by UN agencies, the International Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement, I/NGOs and donors. b. Please confirm that the Resident Coordinator and/or Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC) Report was discussed in the Humanitarian and/or UN Country Team and by cluster/sector coordinators as outlined in the guidelines. YES NO c. Was the final version of the RC/HC Report shared for review with in-country stakeholders as recommended in the guidelines (i.e. the CERF recipient agencies and their implementing partners, cluster/sector coordinators and members and relevant government counterparts)? YES NO 2 I. HUMANITARIAN CONTEXT TABLE 1: EMERGENCY ALLOCATION OVERVIEW (US$) Total -
Bislama Into Kwamera: Code-Mixing and Language Change on Tanna (Vanuatu)
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarSpace at University of Hawai'i at Manoa Vol. 1, No. 2 (December 2007), pp. 216–239 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ Bislama into Kwamera: Code-mixing and Language Change on Tanna (Vanuatu) Lamont Lindstrom University of Tulsa People throughout Vanuatu frequently mix Bislama (that country’s national Pidgin) into their vernaculars. Extensive code-mixing is an obvious indicator, and sometime cause, of language change or even language replacement. This paper discusses several sorts of Bislama code-mixing on Tanna among speakers of that island’s Kwamera language. It assesses levels and kinds of Bislama use in four village debates, tape-recorded in 1982 and 1983. Among other uses, Kwamera speakers mix Bislama when interjecting, reiterating, reporting speech, neutralizing marked vernacular terms, and qualifying what they say. The paper concludes with some remarks on the phonological, morphological/syntactic, and lexical/semantic consequences of recurrent language mixing—on how Islanders’ insertions of Bislama into their oratorical and everyday talk may or may not be effecting linguistic change in Kwamera. Bislama, so far at least, has enriched more than it has impoverished Tanna’s linguistic ecology. Speakers’ frequent Bislama mixes have not yet seriously undermined their vernacular. 1. INTRODUCTION. On the island of Tanna, Vanuatu, many people say that they don’t speak their language the way they used to. This language is Kwamera—or, to give it its local name, Nɨninɨfe1 or Nɨfe (Lindstrom 1986; Lindstrom and Lynch 1994). Around 3,500 people living along Tanna’s southeastern coasts speak Kwamera. -
Reflexives Markers in Oceanic Languages
DGfS-CNRS Summer School: Linguistic Typology (3) Koenig/Moyse-Faurie Reflexives markers in Oceanic Languages Ekkehard König (FU Berlin) & Claire Moyse-Faurie (Lacito-CNRS) 1. Previous views 1.1. A lack of reflexive markers ? “[Oceanic languages] have morphological markers used to encode reciprocal and certain other situations, but not reflexive situations” (Lichtenberk, 2000:31). “Assuming that reflexivity is inherently related to transitivity, we understand why we do not find morphosyntactic reflexivisation in Samoan: Samoan does not have syntactically transitive clauses” (Mosel, 1991: ‘Where have all the Samoan reflexives gone?’) “There is no mark of reflexive, either in the form of a reflexive pronoun or of a reflexive marker on the verb – one simply says I saw me” (Dixon, 1988:9). Out of context, there are indeed many cases of ambiguity with 3rd persons, due to the frequent absence of obligatory grammaticalized constructions to express reflexivity: XÂRÂGURÈ (South of the Mainland, New Caledonia) (1) nyî xati nyî 3SG scold 3SG ‘He is scolding him/himself.’ NUMÈÈ (Far South of the Mainland, New Caledonia) (2) treâ trooke nê kwè nê ART.PL dog 3PL bite 3PL ‘The dogs are biting them/each other.’ MWOTLAP (North Central Vanuatu) (3) Kēy mu-wuh mat kēy 3PL PERF-hit die 3PL ‘They killed each other/themselves.’ (François, 2001:372) TOQABAQITA (South East Solomon) (4) Keero’a keko thathami keero’a 3DU 3DU like 3DU ‘They liked them/each other/themselves.’ (Lichtenberk, 1991:172) 1.2. Confusion between middle markers and reflexive markers “In East Futunan, the reflexive meaning is either lexicalised (i.e. expressed by lexically reflexive verbs) or by transitive verbs, the two arguments of which refer to the same entity. -
Four Grammars of Malakula Languages by Terry Crowley
REVIEW ESSAY Four grammars of Malakula languages by Terry Crowley Crowley, Terry (edited by John Lynch), The Avava language of Central Malakula (Vanuatu). Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 2006, xvi + 213 pp. [Pacific Linguistics 574.] ISBN 0858835649. Price: AUD 54.50 (paperback). Crowley, Terry (edited by John Lynch), Tape: a declining language of Malakula (Vanuatu). Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 2006, xviii + 198 pp. [Pacific Linguistics 575.] ISBN 0858835673. Price: AUD 50.00 (paperback). Crowley, Terry (edited by John Lynch), Naman: a vanishing lan- guage of Malakula (Vanuatu). Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 2006, xxi + 287 pp. [Pacific Linguistics 576.] ISBN 0858835657. Price: AUD 59.00 (paperback). Crowley, Terry (edited by John Lynch), Nese: a diminishing speech variety of Northwest Malakula (Vanuatu). Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 2006, xiii + 81 pp. [Pacific Linguistics 577.] ISBN 0858835665. Price: AUD 27.00 (paperback). ALEXANDRE FRANÇOIS Laboratoire Langues et Civilisations à Tradition Orale (LACITO), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris [email protected] The posthumous publication of these four language descriptions written by the late Terry Crowley is, in many respects, a praiseworthy achievement. The premature death of the author in 2005, aged only 52, meant the loss of a major figure in Oceanic linguistics as well as a tragedy for his field of expertise, the firsthand documentation of Vanuatu’s numerous endangered languages. -
VANUATU the Impact of Cyclone Pam
VANUATU The impact of Cyclone Pam Cyclone Pam – considered the worst natural disaster in the history of Vanuatu and the deadliest in the South Pacific since 2012 – made landfall on the 13th of March of 2015. The islands of Erromango, Tanna and Shepherd Islands which were directly on the path of the cyclone were among the most affected. Food Security Cluster Cyclone Pam impact maps & analysis Purpose of the assessment Purpose of the assessment The current report describes the impact of Acknowledgement Cyclone Pam throughout Vanuatu. Specifically, it reports on the cyclone’s impact WFP thanks the following for making and path to recovery in the areas of: available time and rapid field assessment reports on which this analysis is based: 1) Agriculture and livelihoods 2) Food needs NDMO 3) Housing UNDAC 4) Markets Women’s business and community 5) Health representatives of Port Vila. Peace Corps The report is designed to serve as a tool to Butterfly trust enable stakeholder/expert discussion and OCHA derive a common understanding on the ADF current situation. Food Security Cluster Samaritan’s Purse The report was compiled by: Siemon Hollema, Darryl Miller and Amy Chong (WFP) 1 Penama Cyclone Pam impact Sanma Cyclone Pam is the most powerful cyclone to ever hit the Southern Pacific. It formed near the Solomon Islands on the 6 March 2015 and traversed through Malampa several other island nations, including Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu. On 13 March 2015, it strengthened to a Category 5 storm over the y-shaped chain of islands which make up Vanuatu. Vanuatu took multiple direct hits over 13 Mar 2015 the islands of Efate (where the capital Port Vila is 270km/h winds sustained situated), Erromango and Tanna Island. -
Ura: a Disappearing Language of Southern Vanuatu
Ura: A disappearing language ofsouthern Vanuatu Crowley, T. Ura: A Disappearing Language of Southern Vanuatu. C-156, x + 226 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1999. DOI:10.15144/PL-C156.cover ©1999 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIFIC LINGUISTICS FOUNDlNG EDITOR: Stephen A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: Malcolm D. Ross and Darrell T. Tryon (Managing Editors), John Bowden, Thomas E. Dutton, Andrew K. Pawley Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in linguistic descriptions, dictionaries, atlases and other material on languages of the Pacific, the Philippines, Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications are drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Pacific Linguistics is associated with the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics was established in 1963 through an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund. It is a non-profit-making body financed largely from the sales of its books to libraries and individuals throughout the world, with some assistance fromthe School. The Editorial Board of Pacific Linguistics is made up of the academic staff of the School's Department of Linguistics. The Board also appoints a body of editorial advisors drawn from the international community of linguists. Publications in Series A, B and C and textbooks in Series D are refereed by scholars with relevant expertise who are normally not members of the editorial board. To date Pacific Linguistics has published over 400 volumes in four series: • Series A: Occasional Papers; collections of shorter papers, usually on a single topic or area. -
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Phonlab Annual Report
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley PhonLab Annual Report Title Phonetic Sources of Morphological Patterns in Sound Change: Fricative Voicing in Athabascan Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3xm9418n Journal UC Berkeley PhonLab Annual Report, 11(11) ISSN 2768-5047 Author Manker, Jonathan Publication Date 2015 DOI 10.5070/P73xm9418n eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2015) Phonetic Sources of Morphological Patterns in Sound Change: Fricative Voicing in Athabascan Jonathan Manker University of California, Berkeley While most modern Athabascan languages are described as having contrastive voicing in fricatives, the patterns of fricative voicing still follow both transparent and sometimes more complex morphological (as well as phonological) environments. While a synchronic analysis of the language seems to demonstrate a direct connection between phonological patterns and morphology, such an analysis may also suggest the possibility of morphological conditions in sound change, which has been proposed by some (Crowley 1997, Donohue 2005). This paper investigates the development of fricative voicing in two Athabascan languages and demonstrates that purely phonetic conditions can be identified that led to what appears to be a case of a morphologically conditioned sound change, following a similar analysis in Blevins & Lynch (2009). Both class-specific affixation and prominence patterns are shown to provide phonetic environments that may result in synchronic phonological patterns following morphological environments. 1. Introduction Early models of linguistic organization suggest the impossibility that non-phonetic factors (morphosyntax, semantics, etc.) can influence sound change. For example, the Neogrammarians proposed that sound change is a “purely phonetic process,” occurring under “strictly phonetic conditions” (Bloomfield 1933:364, concerning the Neogrammarians). -
C. Household Living (Dwelling) Conditions
C. HOUSEHOLD LIVING (DWELLING) CONDITIONS 53 Living conditions vary considerably across Vanuatu, based in part on access to infrastructure and utilities. Those living outside urban areas and towns tend to go without electricity and often lack piped water and sewage systems. On most islands, almost all households mainly rely on wood or coconut shell for cooking – even in Port Vila almost half of households still cook using these sources. In the more urbanized parts of the country, houses have concrete or wood floors. Many households in Vanuatu live in basic conditions. For instance, even though traditional materials appear to be widely used for housing across the country, only 17% of households report living in dwellings with walls made of makeshift or improvised materials. A generally low access to electricity in Vanuatu is an area of concern. At the national level, only 38% of households report having electricity (from main grid, solar, or own generator) as a main source of lighting. Outside of the key urban areas (Port Vila and Luganville), less than 20% of households have access to the main grid, and even that number may be driven by those households that live close to provincial centers. In fact, in most ACs, less than 2% of the population has access to the main grid. Solar power has become an important source of electricity, especially in more remote locations. In some ACs, up to 50% of households report reliance on solar power as the main source of lighting. The national average for this source is 6.3% (as of 2009). Only about 2% of the population relies on small petrol generators, which could be a reflection of high costs of fuel. -
The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity Alexandre François, Sébastien Lacrampe, Michael Franjieh, Stefan Schnell
The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity Alexandre François, Sébastien Lacrampe, Michael Franjieh, Stefan Schnell To cite this version: Alexandre François, Sébastien Lacrampe, Michael Franjieh, Stefan Schnell. The Languages of Vanu- atu: Unity and Diversity. Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell. France. 5, Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access, 2015, Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, 9781922185235. halshs-01186004 HAL Id: halshs-01186004 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01186004 Submitted on 23 Aug 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives| 4.0 International License THE LANGUAGES OF VANUATU UNITY AND DIVERSITY Edited by Alexandre François Sébastien Lacrampe Michael Franjieh Stefan Schnell uages o ang f Is L la e nd h t M in e l a Asia-Pacific Linguistics s e n i e ng ge of I d a u a s l L s and the M ni e l a s e s n i e d i u s t a S ~ ~ A s es ia- c P A c u acfi n i i c O pe L n s i g ius itc a