DOCSLIB.ORG

Grammar of Araki

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Araki Ad~appearinglanguage of Vanuatu Also in Pacific Linguistics Terry Crowley, 2000, An Erromangan (Sye) dictionary. John Lynch, 2000, A grammar of Anejoiii. John Bowden, 2001, Taba: Description of a South Halmahera Austronesian language. Catriona Hyslop, 2001, The Lolovoli dialect of the North-East Ambae language, Vanuatu. John Lynch, 2001, The linguistic history of Southern Vanuatu. John Lynch and Terry Crowley, 2001, Languages of Vanuatu: A new survey and bibliography. Catharina Williams-van Klinken, John Hajek and Rachel Nordlinger, 2002, A grammar of Tetun Dili. Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in grammars and linguistic descriptions, dictionaries and other materials on languages of the Pacific, the Philippines, Indonesia, Southeast and South Asia, and Australia. Pacific Linguistics, established in 1963 through an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund, is associated with the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University. The Editorial Board of Pacific Linguistics is made up of the academic staff of the School's Department of Linguistics. The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications are drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Publications are refereed by scholars with relevant expertise who are usually not members of the editorial board. The 470 publications before Publication 501 were numbered in four series, A, B, C and D, but the series were merged from the beginning of the year 2000 because the rationale for them had gradually disappeared. FOUNDING EDITOR: Stephen A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: John Bowden, Malcolm D. Ross and Darrell T. Tryon (Managing Editors), I Wayan Arka, Andrew Pawley, Paul Sidwell. Pacific Linguistics 522 Araki A disappearing language of Vanuatu Alexander Fran~ois Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University \ Published by Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Copyright @ The author First published 2002 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Bibliography. ISBN 0 85883 493 6. 1. Araki language. 2. Vanuatu - Languages. I. Title. 1. The Australian National University. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. H. Title (Pacific Linguistics) 499.4 Cover design by Emily Brissenden Typeset by Margaret Forster Printed and bound by Union Offset Printers, Fyshwick, Canberra to the late Lele Mali, in memory of his kindness and knowledge Om mece lapa, Lele, mara posim mo holoho kamam kesi kam coiiliko roo Contents overview Table of contents List of tables and maps Foreword 1. Introduction 2. Phonology 3. Syntactic categories and their relations 4. Nouns and noun phrases 5. Verbs and verb phrases 6. Clause structure 7. Complex sentences 8. Texts from the oral tradition 9. Araki - English dictionary 10. English - Araki finderlist References List of abbreviations Index Table of contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1. The geographic and social context of Araki 1 1.1.1. Vanuatu 1 1.1.2. Araki 4 1.2. The sociolinguistic situation on Araki 5 1.2.1. Araki, a dying language 5 1.2.2. The influence of Tangoa 6 1.2.3. Language use on Araki: a polyglossic situation 8 1.3. Our research on the language of Araki 9 1.3.1. Existing documentation 9 1.3.2. Methodology 10 1.4. The present study 11 1.5. Typological overview 12 2. Phonology 14 2.1. Phonemes 14 2.1.1. Consonants 14 2.1.2. Vowels 19 2.2. Orthography 20 2.3. Stress 21 2.3.1. General rule for stress .assignment 21 2.3.2. The case of final high vowels 21 2.3.3. Stress-rules for consonant-ending words 23 2.3.4. Exceptional vowel-final words, and emergence of a distinctive accent 24 2.3.5. Other processes of final deletion 25 2.4. Phonotactics 26 2.5. Morphophonemic rules 27 2.5.1. Lexical vowel assimilation 28 2.5.2. Morphological vowel assimilation 28 2.5.3. Morphology of reduplication 30 x Grammar of Araki 3. Syntactic categories and their relations 33 3.1. Word classes 33 3.1.1. Nouns 33 3.1.2. Adjectives 34 3.1.3. Verbs 35 3.1.4. Numerals 35 3.1.5. Adjuncts 35 3.1.6. Adverbs 36 3.1.7. Demonstratives 36' 3.2. Reduplication and derivation 37 3.2.1. From noun to noun 37 3.2.2. From noun to verb or adjective 38 3.2.3. From verb to verb 38 3.2.4. From verb to noun 40 4. Nouns and noun phrases 41 4.1. Pronouns and personal markers 41 4.1.1. Independent pronouns 42 4.1.2. Subject clitic personal markers 44 4.1.3. Object suffix markers 45 4.1.4. Possessive suffix markers 46 4.2. Nouns 47 4.2.1. Inalienable v. alienable nouns 47 4.2.2. Noun-modifying nouns and composition 48 4.2.3. Derivation patterns 50 4.3. Articles and reference-tracking devices 51 4.3.1. The pro-clitic va 'the' 51 4.3.2. The anaphoric post-clitic di 52 4.3.3. The personal nominaliser mada 53 4.3.4. The plural marker dai 54 4.3.5. The specific indefinite rno hese 54 4.3.6. The partitive-indefinite re 59 4.3.7. Reference-tracking devices: summary 68 4.4. Demonstratives 69 4.4.1. Paradigm of Demonstrative markers 69 4.4.2. Semantics of each Demonstrative 71 4.4.3. Syntactic issues 75 4.5. Number-marking and numerals in the Noun Phrase 78 4.5.1. Under-specified number and the context 78 4.5.2. Ambiguities and inconsistencies in number-assigning 79 4.5.3. Overt number-marking on NPs 79 Table of contents xi 4.5.4. Numerals 80 4.5.5. Other quantifiers 89 4.6. Adjectives 91 4.6.1. Syntax of adjectives 91 4.6.2. The intensive suffix -ha 92 4.6.3. The resultative clitic ra - raha 93 4.6.4. Suffix able adjectives 94 4.7. Possession 96 4.7.1. Syntax of inalienable possession 96 4.7.2. Syntax of possessive classifiers inside NPs 97 4.7.3. Semantics of possessive classifiers 98 4.7.4. Syntactic functions of possessive classifiers 100 4.8. Basic NP structure 101 5. Verbs and verb phrases 103 5.1. Basic syntax of subject clitics 103 5.1.1. Subject clitics and parts of speech 103 5.1.2. Syntax of subject clitics 104 5.2. Modality and time 105 5.2.1. Modality in main clauses 105 5.2.2. Modality and interclausal relationships 109 5.3. Aspect 114 5.3.1. General presentation of aspect markers 114 5.3.2. The aspect clitic Ie 'again' 116 5.3.3. The aspect clitic fuisi 'still' 117 5.3.4. The aspect clitic pele 'Alternative' 118 5.3.5. The aspect clitic pa 'Sequential' 118 5.3.6. The aspect clitic re 'Perfect' 122 5.3.7. The aspect auxiliary iso 'Complete' 124 5.3.8. The aspect post-clitic ro 'Progressive' 126 5.4. Transitivity and object marking 130 5.4.1. Presentation of transitivity issues 131 5.4.2. Morphological allomorphisms 132 5.4.3. Syntactic influence on transitivity marking 135 5.4.4. Valency-changing processes 145 5.5. Verb serialisation 147 5.6. Basic VP structure 149 6. Clause structure 151 6.1. Verbless clauses 151 xii Grammar of Araki 6.1.1. NP predicates 151 6.1.2. Other direct predicates 153 6.1.3. Parts of speech and direct predicativeness 155 6.2. Verbal clauses: peripheral complements 156 6.2.1. Adverbs and prepositional phrases 156 6.2.2. Oblique transitivity 160 6.2.3. Ditransitivity and three-argument verbs 161 6.3. Negation 162 6.3.1. Basic syntax of negation 162 6.3.2. Negative complex morphemes 163 6.3.3. Negative existential and grammaticisation 164 6.3.4. Independent negation 165 6.3.5. Negation and modality 166 6.4. Sentence types 168 6.4.1. General remarks 168 6.4.2. Imperative sentences 168 6.4.3. Interrogative sentences 169 7. Complex sentences 172 7.1. Coordination 172 7.2. Subordination 173 7.2.1. Relative clauses 173 7.2.2. Conditional systems 177 7.2.3. Time clauses 181 7.2.4. Sentential objects 183 7.2.5. The verb-conjunction de 184 7.3. Clause chaining 189 7.3.1. Definition of clause chaining 189 7.3.2. Typology of interclausal relations in clause chaining 190 7.3.3. Clause chaining and the building of discourse 198 7.3.4. The architectural complexity of sentences 199 8. Texts from the oral tradition 201 8.1. Legends and true stories 202 8.1.1. Myth of Araki 202 8.1.2. How Pastor Sope released the spell of a Devil 205 8.2. Tales of devils and animals 208 8.2.1. The Coconut Crab 208 8.2.2. The Rat and the Octopus 212 9. Araki - English dictionary 224 Table of contents Xlll 9.1. Foreword to the dictionary 224 9.1.1. The structure of lexical entries 224 9.1.2. Abbreviations and phonetics 226 9.1.3. Semantic field wordlists 228 9.1.4. A note on etymology 228 9.2. Kinship terms 229 9.3. Araki - English dictionary 234 10. English - Araki finderlist 320 List of tables and maps Table 1-1 Fluent speakers of Araki: official figures v. our estimate 5 Table 1-2 Language use on Araki island in 2000: a polyglossic situation 9 Table 2-3 Consonants of Araki 14 Table 2-4 Phonemic contrast between apico-Iabials and bilabials 15 Table 2-5 Phonemic contrast between apico-Iabials and apico-alveolars 16 Table 2-6 Lexical distribution ofbi-Iabial v.
Recommended publications
  • The Paamese Language of Vanuatu

    The Paamese Language of Vanuatu

    PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Series B - No. 87 THE PAAMESE LANGUAGE OF VANUATU by Terry Crowley Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Crowley, T. The Paamese language of Vanuatu. B-87, xii + 280 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1982. DOI:10.15144/PL-B87.cover ©1982 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 is issued through the Linguistic Circle of Canberra and consists of four series: SERIES A - Occasional Papers SERIES B - Monographs SERIES C - Books SERIES D - Special Publications EDITOR: S.A. Wurm ASSOCIATE EDITORS: D.C. Laycock, C.L. Voorhoeve, D.T. Tryon, T.E. Dutton EDITORIAL ADVISERS: B.W. Bender John Lynch University of Hawaii University of Papua New Guinea David Bradley K.A. McElhanon La Trobe University University of Texas A. Capell H.P. McKaughan University of Sydney University of Hawaii Michael G. Clyne P. MUhlhliusler Monash University Linacre College, Oxford S.H. Elbert G.N. O'Grady University of Hawaii University of Victoria, B.C. K.J. Franklin A.K. Pawley Summer Institute of Linguistics University of Auckland W.W. Glover K.L. Pike University of Michigan; Summer Institute of Linguistics Summer Institute of Linguistics G.W. Grace E.C. Polome University of Hawaii University of Texas M.A.K. Halliday Gillian Sankoff University of Sydney University of Pennsylvania E. Haugen W.A.L. Stokhof National Center for Harvard University Language Development, Jakarta; A. Healey University of Leiden Summer Institute of Linguistics E.
  • 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

    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
  • Possession in Lelepa, a Language of Central Vanuatu

    Possession in Lelepa, a Language of Central Vanuatu

    POSSESSION IN LELEPA, A LANGUAGE OF CENTRAL VANUATU by Sébastien Lacrampe A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics School of Language, Arts and Media Pacific Languages Unit The University of the South Pacific March, 2009 DECLARATION I, Sebastien Lacrampe, declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published, or substantially overlapping with material submitted for the award of any other degree at any institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text. The research in this thesis was performed under my supervision and to my knowledge is the sola work of Mr. Sebastien Lacrampe. ABSTRACT This thesis studies possession in Lelepa, a language from the Oceanic subgroup of Austronesian, spoken in Central Vanuatu. Investigating this particular feature of the language was achieved by collecting original data from Lelepa speakers. Language data is presented in the form of interlinearised examples taken from a corpus of texts and elicitation notes. Data was collected between 2006 and 2008 during fieldtrips to Lelepa and Mangaliliu. The core of the study is devoted to the possessive system of Lelepa. Like many other Oceanic languages, Lelepa has direct and indirect possessive constructions. This thesis shows that the direct possessive construction formally consists of a possessed noun to which a possessor suffix attaches. It encodes possession of semantic domains such as body parts, body products, reference kinship terms, items closely associated to the possessor and parts of wholes. Indirect possession is expressed by two distinct subtypes: the free and construct indirect constructions.
  • The Language Situation in Vanuatu Terry Crowley Published Online: 26 Mar 2010

    The Language Situation in Vanuatu Terry Crowley Published Online: 26 Mar 2010

    This article was downloaded by: [Monterey Inst of International Studies] On: 16 December 2013, At: 22:46 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Current Issues in Language Planning Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rclp20 The Language Situation in Vanuatu Terry Crowley Published online: 26 Mar 2010. To cite this article: Terry Crowley (2000) The Language Situation in Vanuatu, Current Issues in Language Planning, 1:1, 47-132, DOI: 10.1080/14664200008668005 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14664200008668005 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.
  • VESP View Issue 1

    VESP View Issue 1

    VESP View VANUATU EDUCATION SUPPORT PROGRAM VESP July 2017 Issue 1: Yusum fulap lanwis blong lan (Developing a multilingual language approach in education for Vanuatu) With 113 vernacular languages, one national and two official languages, Bislama, English and French, Vanuatu has the world’s highest concentration of different languages per head of population (270,400). the language and content teaching approach, and the kind of The following language profiles in two year 1 support materials and training needed. This is very early days classes illustrate this complexity. and a great deal more follow-up work is required. This new dual language + multilingual approach for years 1-6 Class A language profile: is being developed through collaborative classroom research, supported by international and other local research. 33 students L1 (Mother tongue): 12 languages: Tanna, Using classroom research to design the approach Ifira, Nguna, Tongoa, Ambae, Paama, Tongariki, Banks, Ambrym, Pentecost, Collaboration across agencies Futuna, Epi This initiative is coordinated by the Curriculum L2 (2nd language): Bislama x 33 sts Development Unit (CDU), working in collaboration with key stakeholders – schools, teachers, students, Vanuatu L3 (3rd language): English x 3 sts Institute of Teacher Education (VITE) and the School Improvement Unit of the Ministry. Class B language profile: 25 students International Contrastive Curriculum L1: 3 languages: Nakanamanga x 23 sts; research Analysis Analysis Namakura x 1 sts; Bislama x 1 sts Bilingual + Vernaculars, Language + multilingual Bislama, English literacy across education and French subjects A challenge and an opportunity Vanuatu’s National Language Policy 2015 supports the use of all the languages of Vanuatu in education.
  • Vatlongos, Southeast Ambrym (Vanuatu)

    Vatlongos, Southeast Ambrym (Vanuatu)

    Language Documentation and Description ISSN 1740-6234 ___________________________________________ This article appears in: Language Documentation and Description, vol 15. Editors: Peter K. Austin & Lauren Gawne Language Contexts: Vatlongos, Southeast Ambrym (Vanuatu) ELEANOR RIDGE Cite this article: Eleanor Ridge (2018). Language Contexts: Vatlongos, Southeast Ambrym (Vanuatu). In Peter K. Austin & Lauren Gawne (eds) Language Documentation and Description, vol 15. London: EL Publishing. pp. 87-122 Link to this article: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/162 This electronic version first published: July 2018 __________________________________________________ This article is published under a Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial). The licence permits users to use, reproduce, disseminate or display the article provided that the author is attributed as the original creator and that the reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes i.e. research or educational use. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ______________________________________________________ EL Publishing For more EL Publishing articles and services: Website: http://www.elpublishing.org Submissions: http://www.elpublishing.org/submissions Language Contexts: Vatlongos, Southeast Ambrym (Vanuatu) Eleanor Ridge SOAS, University of London Language Name: Vatlongos (also Southeast Ambrym) Language Family: Central Vanuatu, Oceanic, Austronesian ISO 639-3 Code: TVK Glottolog Code: sout2859, endu1237 Population: ~2500-3700 Location: -16.30, 168.21 Vitality rating: EGIDs 6b-5 Abstract Vatlongos, known as Southeast Ambrym in previous literature, is an Oceanic language spoken by somewhere between 2500 and 3700 speakers in Vanuatu. As well as being spoken in the Southeast region of Ambrym island, it is spoken by a relocated community outside the capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila, on Efate island.
  • Topics in the Grammar and Documentation of South Efate, an Oceanic Language of Central Vanuatu

    Topics in the Grammar and Documentation of South Efate, an Oceanic Language of Central Vanuatu

    Topics in the grammar and documentation of South Efate, an Oceanic language of Central Vanuatu Nicholas Augustus Thieberger BA (Hons), MA Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2004 Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, University of Melbourne Abstract This thesis presents topics in the grammar of South Efate, an Oceanic language of Central Vanuatu as spoken in Erakor village on the outskirts of Port Vila. There has been no previous grammatical description of the language, which has been classified as the southernmost member of the North- Central Vanuatu subgroup of languages. In this description I show that South Efate shares features with southern Vanuatu languages, including a lack of serial verb constructions of the kind known for its northern neighbours and the use of an echo-subject marker. The phonology of South Efate reflects an ongoing change in progress, with productive medial vowel deletion and consequent complex heterorganic consonant clusters. A key feature of South Efate grammar is the grammaticalisation of a benefactive phrase in pre-verbal position. There is thus a discontinuous verbal complex including a closed class of auxiliary verbs that occur in a fixed order preceding the benefactive phrase and then the verb. Mood-marking is central to any utterance in South Efate and there is no grammatical expression of tense. The interplay between mood and aspect marking is an interesting feature of the language. The present research is set in the context of increasing attention being paid to the state of the world's smaller languages and their prospects for being spoken into the future.
  • New Technologies and Language Shifting in Vanuatu

    New Technologies and Language Shifting in Vanuatu

    Pragmatics 23:1.169-179 (2013) International Pragmatics Association DOI: 10.1075/prag.23.1.08van NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND LANGUAGE SHIFTING IN VANUATU Leslie Vandeputte-Tavo Abstract During the last few years, mobile phones and social networks have deeply changed relationships and, insidiously, the use and representations of languages in Vanuatu. In spite of being very recent, it seems that new ways of communication imply changes regarding the various ways of using and adapting languages, amongst which are code-switching and language-shifting. Bislama, the national local lingua franca, is becoming more and more used in phone conversations. Internet and especially social networks (such as Facebook) are revealing new language strategies in social intercourses. This article examines interactions of languages that are mediated through social networks and mobile phone exchanges. More specifically, this paper discusses different language ideologies that are manifest in and deployed over forms of telecommunication. Keywords: Bislama; Pidgin; Ethnolinguistics; Mass media; Telecommunication; Linguistic ideology; Port-Vila; Vanuatu. 1. Introduction As many other small Pacific countries, Vanuatu has recently been the theater of an important telecommunication (mobiles, Internet) “revolution” which is currently still in progress. During the last few years, mobile phones and social networks (an Internet- based media program to make connections), have deeply changed social relationships and, insidiously, the use and representations of languages in Vanuatu. Digicel, the most important international telecommunication operator, arrived in Vanuatu in June 2008, giving Melanesians an easy access to mobile phones while experiencing its facilities and pernicious effects at the same time. The service is now available to over 80 percent of the population and « more and more ni-Vanuatu move to embrace the Digicel age1.
  • The Historical Morphology of Personal Pronouns in Northern Vanuatu

    The Historical Morphology of Personal Pronouns in Northern Vanuatu

    The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu Alexandre François* 1. LANGUAGE GENEALOGY AND THE MORPHOLOGY OF PRONOUNS 1.1. The Comparative Method and the Tree model The Comparative Method is commonly hailed as a solid methodology for comparing genetically related languages, and for reconstructing the history of their linguistic systems.1 Equally common is the assumption that the results of its analyses are best displayed in the form of a tree, or Stammbaum: starting from a common protolanguage, its linguistic descendants should form neatly separated branches and subgroups, each of which should be defined by a set of exclusively shared innovations. The expectation – or at least the hope – is that the historical innovations reflected in modern members of a family should be distributed in nested patterns, so as to fit a cladistic representation of that family. This belief is reflected in the vast popularity of the tree model in works of historical linguistics up to this day. The present paper aims at separating these two lines of thought, by showing that the strength of the Comparative Method does not necessarily entail the validity of the tree model which has been so often associated with it since the Neogram- marians. In fact, I will even propose that the CM provides precisely the analytical tools necessary to demonstrate the limitations of the tree model. Indeed, the method rests on principles of consistency and regularity of sound change, which allow the linguist to conduct rigorous demonstrations in the identification of innovations for each language, and in the reconstruction of words’ histories.
  • The Geography and History of *R-Loss in Southern Oceanic Languages Alexandre Fran¸Cois

    The Geography and History of *R-Loss in Southern Oceanic Languages Alexandre Fran¸Cois

    Where *R they all? The Geography and History of *R-loss in Southern Oceanic Languages Alexandre Fran¸cois To cite this version: Alexandre Fran¸cois. Where *R they all? The Geography and History of *R-loss in Southern Oceanic Languages. Oceanic Linguistics, 2011, 50 (1), pp.140 - 197. <10.1353/ol.2011.0009>. <hal-01137686> HAL Id: hal-01137686 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01137686 Submitted on 17 Oct 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destin´eeau d´ep^otet `ala diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publi´esou non, lished or not. The documents may come from ´emanant des ´etablissements d'enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche fran¸caisou ´etrangers,des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou priv´es. Where *R they all? The Geography and History of *R-loss in Southern Oceanic Languages Alexandre François LANGUES ET CIVILISATIONS À TRADITION ORALE (CNRS), PARIS, AND AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Some twenty years ago, Paul Geraghty offered a large-scale survey of the retention and loss of Proto-Oceanic *R across Eastern Oceanic languages, and concluded that *R was “lost in proportion to distance from Western Oceanic.” This paper aims at testing Geraghty’s hypothesis based on a larger body of data now available, with a primary focus on a tightly knit set of languages spoken in Vanuatu. By observing the dialectology of individual lexical items in this region, I show that the boundaries between languages retaining vs.
  • 'National' and 'Official' Languages Across the Independent Asia-Pacific

    'National' and 'Official' Languages Across the Independent Asia-Pacific

    PORTAL Journal of RESEARCH ARTICLE Multidisciplinary ‘National’ and ‘Official’ Languages Across the International Studies Independent Asia-Pacific Vol. 16, No. 1/2 2019 Rowena Ward Corresponding author: Dr Rowena Ward, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, Northfields Ave Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. Email: [email protected] DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/portalv16i1/2.6510 Article History: Received 15/03/2019; Revised 02/08/2019; Accepted 16/08/2019; Published 13/11/2019 © 2019 by the author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Abstract (CC BY 4.0) License (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ In November 2018 New Caledonians went to the polls to vote on whether the French by/4.0/), allowing third parties territory should become an independent state. In accordance with the terms of the 1998 to copy and redistribute the Noumea Accord between Kanak pro-independence leaders and the French government, New material in any medium or format and to remix, Caledonians will have the opportunity to vote on the same issue again in 2020 and should they transform, and build upon the vote for independence, a new state will emerge. In another part of Melanesia, the people of the material for any purpose, even Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARB) will vote on 23 November 2019 on whether to commercially, provided the original work is properly cited secede from Papua New Guinea and form an independent state. With the possibility of two and states its license.
  • Exploring the Phonological System of Ninde (Malekula, Vanuatu)

    Exploring the Phonological System of Ninde (Malekula, Vanuatu)

    Exploring the Phonological System of Ninde (Malekula, Vanuatu) Jean Murray Abstract Ninde is one of approximately 30 languages spoken on the island of Malekula, the second largest island of Vanuatu, itself home to some 100 indigenous languages. Like most Malekula languages, it is unwritten, and very limited grammatical research has been carried out with the language. Most of the analysis that is available is written based on second-hand written accounts of the language. While Charpentier (1982) and Tryon (1976) did hear the language first-hand, they provide no audio recordings to compare to modern speakers and provide only word lists with no examples of whole language or natural speech. This study provides the first in-depth phonological analysis of the language which was conducted through the analysis of audio recordings of both careful and natural speech, broken down into single sentence or single word soundbites. Through this analysis, a working orthography with which the language should be able to be written is proposed. The orthography is currently being reviewed by the speaker community for approval. Keywords: Ninde, Malekula, Vanuatu, Language, Phonology, Orthography 1 1. Background Ninde is an Austronesian language spoken in the Southern part of Malekula1 Island, Vanuatu. The name, like many other Malekula languages, literally translates to ‘what’2 (Lynch and Crowley 2001:73). The language is spoken primarily by the cultural group traditionally known as Mewun. Presently, the language is most commonly referred to as Ninde (Charpentier 1982, Lynch and Crowley 2001) or Nide, but has also been called Mewun (Deacon 1934, Gowers 1976, Wheatley 1992) and Meaun (Ray 1926), which references the cultural group from which it originates.