Possessive Markers in Central Pacific Languages (Review) Joseph C

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Possessive Markers in Central Pacific Languages (Review) Joseph C Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation Volume 15 Article 14 Issue 2 October 2001 Possessive Markers in Central Pacific Languages (Review) Joseph C. Finney Follow this and additional works at: https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/rnj Part of the History of the Pacific slI ands Commons, and the Pacific slI ands Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Finney, Joseph C. (2001) "Possessive Markers in Central Pacific Languages (Review)," Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation: Vol. 15 : Iss. 2 , Article 14. Available at: https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/rnj/vol15/iss2/14 This Book or Media Review is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Hawai`i Press at Kahualike. It has been accepted for inclusion in Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation by an authorized editor of Kahualike. For more information, please contact daniel20@hawaii.edu. Finney: Possessive Markers in Central Pacific Languages (Review) pect that this work will be toted as the flagship of Pacific ar­ Possessive Markers in Central Pacific Languages chaeology for years to come. As the years go by, and new themes in Pacific prehistory develop, On the Road ofthe Winds Edited by Steven Roger Fischer will remain an excellent historical statement of the current con­ Sprachtypologie und Universalienforchung, Universitat Bre­ dition ofthe field. men, Postfach 22 04 40, D28334 Bremen, Germany REFERE CES Review by Joseph C. Finney Bellwood, Peter. 1978. Man's Conquest ofthe Pacific: The Prehistory ofSoutheast Asia and Oceania. William Collins, Auckland. This book was published as a special issue of the German Bellwood, Peter. 2000. Book Review: On the Road ofthe Winds. An­ (Berlin) journal, Sprachtypologie und UniversaIienforschung, tiquity 74(286):989-990. with the translating subtitle: "Language Typology and Univer­ Biersack, Alletta. 1991. Clio in Oceania: Toward a Historical Anthro­ sals". In all the papers quoted here, an asterisk denotes a hypo­ pology. Smithsonian Institution Press. thetical reconstruction of an ancestral form, and not an ungram­ White, J. Peter. 2000. Book Review: On the Road ofthe Winds. Asian Perspectives 39: 189-190. matical form (its other common use). The Central Pacific languages (a group with common an­ cestry) are the Polynesian languages (and dialects), the Fijian Te Moana Nui. Exploring Lost Isles communalects (where the distinctions between languages and ofthe South Pacific dialects is unclear), and Rotuman. Fijian and Rotuman probably share a common ancestry that is not shared by Polynesians. Georgia Lee Central Pacific is a unit within Oceanic, a subgroup within East­ Easter Island Foundation, 200 I. rapanuibookS@woridnet.alt.nel $25 ern Malayo-Polynesian, which is a subdivision of Malayo­ ISBN 1-880636-19-0 Polynesian, which is one of the ten divisions of the Austrone­ Review by Paul G. Bahn sian family of languages. Of the twelve papers, one deals with the Central Pacific The latest in the Easter Island Foundation's excellent se­ group as a whole, one with Fijian, one with Rotuman, one with ries of publications constitutes a delightful journey through a the Polynesian group as a whole; and each of the remaining wide variety of islands in the South Pacific - including Rapa eight deals with a specific Polynesian language: (Tongan and Nui - in the company ofGeorgia Lee who has had the rare good Niuean in the Tongic group; Tokelauan, Pileni, and East Uvean fortune to visit them all aboard the cruise ship World Discov­ in the Samoic-Outlier group; and Rapanui, Hawaiian, and Maori erer. This is a book which can be either dipped into or read in East Polynesian). cover to cover - it contains something for everyone, from pre­ The guest editor, Steven Fisher, who also contributed a history to scandals, from artistic rogues to sadistic clergymen, paper, did well in his selection of the eleven other authors to from warfare to movies, from pearls to politics, from Robinson cover various languages of Central Pacific. The authors know Crusoe to Moby Dick - and of course there is the ever-popular their languages well and they have very ably analyzed the mark­ mutiny on the Bounty and many other ripping yarns. ing ofpossessive markers in Central Pacific Languages. For each island or group, a map is provided, as well as a timeline of important events. In each case, the author gives us a JOHN LYNCH'S HISTORICAL OVERVIEW brief history of the island, and of the characters involved in it, Lynch begins his historical overview by noting that Cen­ as well as of the present-day conditions ofthe place and its peo­ tral Pacific is a division of the Oceanic languages, which in­ ple. Alongside the many familiar tales such as those of Paul cludes some 450 languages. That is about half the (1000 or so) Gauguin or Alexander Selkirk, one encounters fascinating tid­ languages in the Austronesian family, though Oceanic is a small bits such as the fact that it was Pitcairn Island which was the sub-sub-sub division within the family. Citing his own work first community anywhere to adopt women's suffrage and com­ and others, he notes that Proto-Oceanic (henceforth POc) had pulsory education, or that Easter Island is probably the only two basic ways of marking possession. The simpler and perhaps place in the world where introduced rabbits were eaten by peo­ older one was Direct possession. It was used in POc for certain ple before they could multiply! In the margins one finds a well­ inalienable relations, notably kin terms, parts of something, and chosen potpourri of quotations from poems, chants, songs, let­ passive possession, things done to the possessor (his destruction ters and texts, featuring people as diverse as Bill Mulloy, Car­ of her). lyle Smith, Rupert Brooke and Herman Melville. Overall, the Direct possession puts the possessed thing at the left, after book's design is outstanding, with chapter openings strikingly its article (ART). The possessor is on the right. Because of an­ superimposed on large photographs, and one can forgive the cestral syntactic changes that we need not consider (ancestral occasional typographic error and a bibliography that is not al­ genitive-ergative becoming nominative in Proto Central-Eastern ways in alphabetical order. MP), it is hard to tell whether an "of" element is present at the This miscellaneous collection of studies of the often tragic beginning of the possessor pronoun suffix or not. The issue is pasts and uncertain futures of these wonderful and remote is­ not discussed. If the possessor is a pronoun, it is attached as a lands is warmly recommended to all those who have any kind of suffix on the possessed object. Lynch's examples from Proto­ interest in the Pacific region. Who can resist tales of pirate Oceanic (hence preceded by an asterisk) are: treasure and castaways? Direct possession is almost totally lost in Rotuman and Rapa Nui Journal 133 Vol. 15 (2) October 200 I Published by Kahualike, 2001 1 Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation, Vol. 15 [2001], Iss. 2, Art. 14 especially Polynesian, where Lynch (citing Wilson 1982) notes shortly before the Norman conquest, may have had some ability it is used with only half-dozen kin terms and even there only in to understand the English and vice versa, which allowed Eng­ the singular, where for a pronoun possessor it comes out, e.g., lish to borrow pronouns (they and them) from the Danish words "father-me" (or "father-my, father of me" if we regard a hidden that were homologous with English "these" and those", replac­ genitive preposition as present). An abbreviated or contracted ing the older English plural pronouns beginning with h-. By this construction of this sort is likely to be a more ancient construc­ theory, East Fijian and West Fijian grew close together so that tion that has suffered lenition. (Here I am supplying an explana­ nowadays it is not inappropriate to consider them members of a tion not expressed by Lynch). common Fijian language, though as Geraghty notes, there is a The other type, called indirect possession, was used in comprehension boundary between them. Proto Central Pacific for alienable possessions, with separate Geraghty reports recent research beyond what he has pre­ markers for three types: food, drink, and general. (This is the viously published. He notes that Lynch disputes his expressed sort of elaboration that occurs to aid comprehension by restor­ view that Proto Polynesian is most closely related to the lan­ ing a greater ratio of observable cue to meaning). What Proto­ guages of Lau [in Fiji] and eastern Vanualevu." Geraghty con­ Polynesian (PPN) has subsequently done is to rearrange the cludes, "Vanualevu is thus the only part of Fiji where are to be three types of indirect possession into two, one marked by the found the three prerequisites for the Polynesian marker set: glot­ particle "A" and the other by "0". As we shall see, there are at tal stop initial general marker, loss ofdirect possession for most least two differing ways of characterizing the basic difference inalienables, and loss of general marker after the article.... between an A" possession and an "0" possession: in terms of Vanualevu therefore remains the most likely location for the "control" or of "alienability." In a complex way, Polynesian's origin ofthe Polynesian languages as a distinct entity." "A" marker (controlling or alienable possession) comes down from the ancestral marker for general possessions, and Polyne­ HANS SCHMIDT ON ROTUMAN sian's "0" from ancestral "qo" which had increasingly come to Schmidt's paper discusses at length the Possession Mark­ be used with passives, kin terms and parts. It is a very complex ers in Rotuman.
Recommended publications
  • Use of Theses
    THESES SIS/LIBRARY TELEPHONE: +61 2 6125 4631 R.G. MENZIES LIBRARY BUILDING NO:2 FACSIMILE: +61 2 6125 4063 THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY EMAIL: library.theses@anu.edu.au CANBERRA ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA USE OF THESES This copy is supplied for purposes of private study and research only. Passages from the thesis may not be copied or closely paraphrased without the written consent of the author. Language in a Fijian Village An Ethnolinguistic Study Annette Schmidt A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Australian National University. September 1988 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates sociolinguistic variation in the Fijian village of Waitabu. The aim is to investigate how particular uses, functions and varieties of language relate to social patterns and modes of interaction. ·The investigation focuses on the various ways of speaking which characterise the Waitabu repertoire, and attempts to explicate basic sociolinguistic principles and norms for contextually­ appropriate behaviour.The general purpose is to explicate what the outsider needs to know to communicate appropriately in Waitabu community. Chapter one discusses relevant literature and the theoretical perspective of the thesis. I also detail the fieldwork setting, problems and restrictions, and thesis plan. Chapter two provides the necessary background information to this study, describing the geographical, demographical and sociohistorical setting. Description is given of the contemporary language situation, structure of Fijian (Bouma dialect), and Waitabu social structure and organisation. In Chapter 3, the kinship system which lies at the heart of Waitabu social organisation, and kin-based sociolinguistic roles are analysed. This chapter gives detailed description of the kin categories and the established modes of sociolinguistic behaviour which are associated with various kin-based social identities.
    [Show full text]
  • [.35 **Natural Language Processing Class Here Computational Linguistics See Manual at 006.35 Vs
    006 006 006 DeweyiDecimaliClassification006 006 [.35 **Natural language processing Class here computational linguistics See Manual at 006.35 vs. 410.285 *Use notation 019 from Table 1 as modified at 004.019 400 DeweyiDecimaliClassification 400 400 DeweyiDecimali400Classification Language 400 [400 [400 *‡Language Class here interdisciplinary works on language and literature For literature, see 800; for rhetoric, see 808. For the language of a specific discipline or subject, see the discipline or subject, plus notation 014 from Table 1, e.g., language of science 501.4 (Option A: To give local emphasis or a shorter number to a specific language, class in 410, where full instructions appear (Option B: To give local emphasis or a shorter number to a specific language, place before 420 through use of a letter or other symbol. Full instructions appear under 420–490) 400 DeweyiDecimali400Classification Language 400 SUMMARY [401–409 Standard subdivisions and bilingualism [410 Linguistics [420 English and Old English (Anglo-Saxon) [430 German and related languages [440 French and related Romance languages [450 Italian, Dalmatian, Romanian, Rhaetian, Sardinian, Corsican [460 Spanish, Portuguese, Galician [470 Latin and related Italic languages [480 Classical Greek and related Hellenic languages [490 Other languages 401 DeweyiDecimali401Classification Language 401 [401 *‡Philosophy and theory See Manual at 401 vs. 121.68, 149.94, 410.1 401 DeweyiDecimali401Classification Language 401 [.3 *‡International languages Class here universal languages; general
    [Show full text]
  • Introductory Readings on the Languages of the Pacific Islands
    University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Fall 2016 Linguistics 150 Introductory Readings on the Languages of the Pacific Islands i Introductory Readings on the Languages of the Pacific Islands Table of Contents Map of Oceania .................................................................................................................... i Preface to the second edition ............................................................................................. iv 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 John Lynch Unity of Austronesian Languages 2. History of the Austronesian languages ..........................................................................6 Robert Blust 3. Historical linguistics and Oceanic languages ...............................................................16 Ritsuko Kikusawa 4. Sound systems ..............................................................................................................28 Shelly Harrison 5. Typology: Grammatical structures ...............................................................................38 Frank Lichtenberk 6. Cognates in Samoan and Hawaiian.............................................................................. 47 Kenneth W. Cook Diversity of Pacific Languages 7. Multilingualism: Language diversity ...........................................................................61 John Lynch 8. Changing language choices in Melanesia ....................................................................70
    [Show full text]
  • Loan Phonology
    Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 307 Loan Phonology edited by Andrea Calabrese W. Leo Wetzels JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY LOAN PHONOLOGY AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE G eneral Editor E.F.K. KOERNER Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung, Berlin efk.koerner@rz.hu-berlin.de Series IV – CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY Advisory Editorial Board Lyle Campbell (Salt Lake City) Sheila Embleton (Toronto) Elly van Gelderen (Tempe, Ariz.) Brian D. Joseph (Columbus, Ohio) John E. Joseph (Edinburgh) Manfred Krifka (Berlin) Martin Maiden (Oxford) E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.) Joseph C. Salmons (Madison, Wis.) Volume 307 Andrea Calabrese and W. Leo Wetzels (eds.) Loan Phonology LOAN PHONOLOGY Edited by A NDREA CALABRESE University of Connecticut, Storrs W. LEO WETZELS Université de Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle/ LPP, CNRS & VU University Amsterdam J OHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements ofA merican National 8 Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Loan phonology / edited by Andrea Calabrese, W. Leo Wetzels. p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV, Current is- sues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763 ; v. 307) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Grammar, Comparative and general--Phonology, Comparative. 2. Language and languages--Foreign words and phrases. I. Calabrese, Andrea, 1956- II. Wetzels, Leo. P217.52.L63 2009 414--dc22 2009026225 isbn 978 90 272 4823 7 (hb; alk. paper) isbn 978 90 272 8896 7 (eb) © 2009 – John Benjamins B.V.
    [Show full text]
  • Mitochondrial DNA Variation in the Fijian Archipelago by Diana A
    Mitochondrial DNA variation in the Fijian Archipelago By Diana A. Taylor Submitted to the graduate degree program in Anthropology and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. ________________________________ Chairperson Dr. Alan J. Redd ________________________________ Dr. James H. Mielke ________________________________ Dr. Maria E. Orive Date Defended: April 5, 2012 The Thesis Committee for Diana A. Taylor certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Mitochondrial DNA variation in the Fijian Archipelago ________________________________ Chairperson Dr. Alan J. Redd Date approved: April 18, 2012 ii ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to explore the evolutionary history of Fijians with respect to maternal ancestry. Geographically situated between Melanesia and Polynesia, Fiji has been a place of cultural exchange between Pacific Islanders for at least three thousand years. Traditionally, Fijians have been classified as Melanesians based on geography, culture, and skin pigmentation. However, Fijians share much in common linguistically, phenotypically, and genetically with Polynesians. Four questions motivated my research. First, are Fijians more Melanesian or Polynesian genetically? Second, is there a relationship between geography and genetic variation? Third, are Rotumans more similar to Fijians or Polynesians? And lastly, are Lau Islanders more similar to Fijians or Tongans? I used maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) as my tool of investigation. In addition, I used various lines of anthropological evidence to synthesize my conclusions. I examined a sample of over 100 Fijians from five island populations, namely: Viti Levu, Kadavu, Vanua Levu, the Lau Islands, and Rotuma. In addition, my sample included two Melanesian and two Polynesian island populations.
    [Show full text]
  • The Word-Level Prosody of Samoan
    Word-level prosody of Samoan* Kie Zuraw, Kristine Yu, and Robyn Orfitelli. This is a manuscript version of a 2014 paper that appears in Phonology 31: 271-327. Please visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S095267571400013X for the published version, which has undergone additional copy-editing and typesetting. This paper documents and analyzes stress and vowel length in Samoan words. The domain of footing, the prosodic word, appears to be a root and a “close” (usually monosyllabic) suffix; prefixes and most disyllabic suffixes form a separate domain. Vowel sequences that disrupt the normal stress pattern require constraints matching sonority prominence to metrical prominence, sensitive to degree of mismatch and to the number of vowels involved. Two suffixes unexpectedly have an idiosyncratic footing constraint, observable only in a limited set of words. We also discuss trochaic shortening and its asymmetrical productivity, and marginal contrastiveness of some features in loans. While Samoan does not appear to be typologically unusual, it does offer arguments (i) in favour of alignment constraints on prosodic words rather than only on feet directly, and (ii) against simple cyclicity, and some of the strongest evidence for these arguments come from stress patterns of the rich inventory of vowel sequences phonotactically licit in Samoan. 0. Introduction This paper describes and analyzes the word-level prosody of contemporary Samoan, an Austronesian language from the Independent State of Samoa and the (U.S.) Territory of American Samoa, with about 370,000 speakers in all countries (Ethnologue 2005). We focus on stress placement and vowel length. Samoan presents a case where morpheme boundaries disrupt a word’s prosody, and mono- and disyllabic suffixes behave differently.
    [Show full text]
  • Natural Phonology and Sound Change
    23 Natural Phonology and Sound Change GEOFFREY S. NATHAN PATRICIA J. DONEGAN If we turn now to the actuating principles that determine the general changeability of human speech habits, we shall find that the moving power everywhere is an impetus starting from the individual, and that there is a curbing power in the mere fact that language exists not for the individual alone but for the whole community. The whole history of language is, as it were, a tug-of-war between these two principles, each of which gains victories in turn (Jespersen 1964: 261). Abstract Phonological processes are phonetically motivated and universal, but their application is limited through language learning. As the inhibitions on processes change, pronunciations and speaker abilities change, leading to changes in learners’ perceptions and representations. Natural Phonology accounts for the traditional notions of splits, mergers, rephonemicizations, chains, and typological changes through changes in these inhibitions. 1 Introductory remarks Natural phonology (NP) views the phonology of a language as a system of subconscious mental processes that in real time mediate between intended but unpronounceable lexical forms of utterances and pronounceable surface forms. In production, the prosody maps lexical items in morphological and syntactic structures onto a real time rhythmic score. The scored sequence is submitted first to fortition processes that enhance the perceptibility of its rhythmic divisions (such as feet and syllables) and its phonemes, and then to lenition processes that enhance the pronounceability of the sequences of sounds within their rhythmic domains.1 NP is a (primarily) non-structuralist theory of language structure, in which the nature of the phonological system is shaped by the nature of its users — human beings — and specifically by their speech-production and perception abilities.
    [Show full text]
  • The Morphosyntactic Typology of Oceanic Languages*
    LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS 5.2:491-541, 2004 2004-0-005-002-000082-1 The Morphosyntactic Typology of Oceanic Languages* Malcolm D. Ross The Australian National University The main goal of this paper is to describe some morphosyntactic characteristics that are common to a majority of Oceanic languages. Amidst the typological variety of Oceanic languages, the author defines a canonic language type, i.e., a type widely represented both genealogically and geographically. This type is SVO and has prepositions. Subjects are coreferenced by a prefix or proclitic to the verb, objects by a suffix or enclitic. Verbs often fall into morphologically related pairs with a transitive and an intransitive member. In some languages these verb pairs in turn fall into two classes. With A-verbs, the subject of both members is the Actor. With U-verbs, the subject of the intransitive is the Undergoer, which is to say, it corresponds to the object of the transitive. Against this background the (de-)transitivising morphology of Oceanic languages is described. Possession in the canonic language type takes two forms, direct and indirect. The direct construction encodes inalienable possession, the indirect (which entails a possessive classifier) encodes alienable possession. The paper finishes with a discussion of interclausal relationships in canonic languages. Adverbial and complement clauses display little desententialisation. It is also suggested that subjects in canonic languages generally have only a semantic function, not a reference-tracking function. Key words: Oceanic languages, canonic type, typology, morphosyntax, verbal marking of subject, verbal marking of object, (de-)transitivising morphology, possession, interclausal relations, function of subject 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding Oceania: Celebrating the University of the South Pacific
    UNDERSTANDING OCEANIA CELEBRATING THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC AND ITS COLLABORATION WITH THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNDERSTANDING OCEANIA CELEBRATING THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC AND ITS COLLABORATION WITH THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY EDITED BY STEWART FIRTH AND VIJAY NAIDU PACIFIC SERIES Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: anupress@anu.edu.au Available to download for free at press.anu.edu.au ISBN (print): 9781760462888 ISBN (online): 9781760462895 WorldCat (print): 1101142803 WorldCat (online): 1101180975 DOI: 10.22459/UO.2019 This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The full licence terms are available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode Cover design and layout by ANU Press This edition © 2019 ANU Press Contents Acknowledgements . vii Acronyms . ix Contributors . xiii 1 . Themes . 1 Stewart Firth 2 . A Commentary on the 50-Year History of the University of the South Pacific . 11 Vijay Naidu 3 . The Road from Laucala Bay . 35 Brij V . Lal Part 1: Balancing Tradition and Modernity 4 . Change in Land Use and Villages—Fiji: 1958–1983 . 59 R . Gerard Ward 5 . Matai Titles and Modern Corruption in Samoa: Costs, Expectations and Consequences for Families and Society . 77 Morgan Tuimalealiʻifano 6 . Making Room for Magic in Intellectual Property Policy . 91 Miranda Forsyth Part 2: Politics and Political Economy 7 . Postcolonial Political Institutions in the South Pacific Islands: A Survey . 127 Jon Fraenkel 8 . Neo-Liberalism and the Disciplining of Pacific Island States —the Dual Challenges of a Global Economic Creed and a Changed Geopolitical Order .
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Diplomacy in the South Pacific
    Cultural Diplomacy in the South Pacific Table of Contents: Cultural Diplomacy in the South Pacific 1. Introduction 2. Methodology 3. Contemporary Examples of Public Sector Sponsored Cultural Diplomacy in the South Pacific 3.1 Cook Islands 3.2 Guam 3.3 Kingdom of Tonga 3.4 Niue Island 3.5 Overseas Lands of French Polynesia 3.6 Papua New Guinea 3.7 Republic of Fiji 3.8 Republic of Palau 3.9 Republic of Marshall Islands 3.10 Republic of Vanuatu 4. Conclusion 5. References 1. Introduction Overview of the South Pacific Region The South Pacific is comprised of 20,000 to 30,000 islands which lie south of the Tropic of Cancer. The Pacific Island region covers 20 million square miles of ocean and 117,000 square miles of land, with a population of 8 million people. For the first time, the South Pacific region is facing urbanization, which has brought new challenges to this area. The rates of urban growth in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, both in excess of 6 per cent per annum, are among the highest in the world.1 The islands are commonly grouped into three different divisions; Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. The inhabitants from each of these groups all differ by historical, geographical, language and physical characteristics. Polynesia is located in the south-eastern part of the region, Melanesia is found in the southwest, from the Arafura Sea to the western end of the Pacific Ocean and eastward to Fiji, whilst Micronesia lies in the north. The Pacific islands are classified into a high island group and a low island group.
    [Show full text]
  • 0 Beyond Trochaic Shortening a Survey of Central Pacific Languages Kie Zuraw Kie@Ucla.Edu UCLA Department of Linguistics 3125 C
    0 Beyond trochaic shortening a survey of Central Pacific languages Kie Zuraw kie@ucla.edu UCLA Department of Linguistics 3125 Campbell Hall, Box 951543 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543 1 Beyond Trochaic Shortening a survey of Central Pacific languages 2 An underlying form like /ma:li/ is problematic for a stress system requiring word-final, bimoraic trochees. The grammar must sacrifice word-finality or bimoraicity, [(má:)li] or [(má:li)] (tolerating HL#); place stress on the second half of the long vowel, [ma(áli)] (breaking); or shorten the vowel, [(máli)] (trochaic shortening). This article surveys the Central Pacific language family, which hosts the most famous cases of breaking (Tongan) and trochaic shortening (Fijian), and finds that while trochaic shortening is poorly attested, breaking and tolerance are common. There are three findings of theoretical interest. First, length alternations suggest it is difficult to learn contrastive information that is absent in the core member of the morphological paradigm. Second, lexicalization of whole words is a possible response to this difficulty. Third, there is divergence between a language’s root phonotactics and its alternations.* Keywords: typology, stress, vowel length, trochaic shortening, breaking, Central Pacific, Polynesian 3 Beyond Trochaic Shortening: a survey of Central Pacific languages 1. INTRODUCTION: THE FACTORIAL TYPOLOGY OF TROCHAIC SHORTENING. Consider an underlying form ending in a heavy-light sequence, like /maːli/. Footing and stressing /maːli/ will be problematic in a language that requires a trochaic (stressed-unstressed) foot at the ends of words, as in pa(táka). The table in 1 lists the compromises available, using the constraints defined in 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Loanword Strata in Rotuman
    Loanword Strata in Rotuman by Hans Schmidt In Language Contacts in Prehistory: Studies in Stratigraphy: Papers from the Workshop on Linguistic Stratigraphy and Prehistory at the Fifteenth International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Melbourne, 17 August 2001, pp. 201-240 (2003). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co. (c) 2003 John Benjamins Publishing Company. Not to be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. LOANWORD STRATA IN ROTUMAN Hans Schmidt University of the South Pacific, Vanuatu 1. Introduction Rotuma is a small island in the South Pacific.1 It lies roughly at the crossroads of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. Politically, the island forms part of the Republic of Fiji; though the closest Fijian island, Cikobia, is about 465 km distant (Woodhall 1987:1). The island is accessible from Suva, the capital of Fiji, by a two-day boat trip or in two hours by plane. In contrast to its Northern neighbor Tuvalu, Rotuma is not a coral atoll but a so called ‘high’ island of volcanic origin (Pleistocene), its surface area is 46 km2 and its soil is very fertile. Rotuma has a population of approximately 2,700 inhabitants who live in twenty villages scattered along the coast. This constitutes the highest population density (59 per km2) for all Fijian islands (Walsh 1982:20), although three quarters of the Rotumans have left their home island for the urban areas of Fiji or overseas. Many of these Fiji-Rotumans have never been on Rotuma or at most for a brief Christmas holiday. In contrast to its small number of speakers, Rotuman has featured frequently in works of general and comparative linguistics.2 What makes Rotuman so interesting in the eyes of linguists? Its productive metathesis.
    [Show full text]