A Grammar of Ughele An Oceanic language of Solomon Islands Benedicte Haraldstad Frostad Published by LOT phone: +31 30 253 6006 Trans 10 3512 JK Utrecht e-mail: [email protected] The Netherlands http://www.lotschool.nl Cover illustration: Two young speakers of Ughele, photo by Tanguy Cozian ISBN: 978-94-6093-097-3 NUR 616 Copyright © 2012 by Benedicte Haraldstad Frostad. All rights reserved. A Grammar of Ughele B. H. Frostad PhD Thesis Radboud University Nijmegen A Grammar of Ughele Een wetenschappelijke proeve op het gebied van de Letteren Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.mr.S.C.J.J. Kortmann volgens besluit van het College van Decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op 14 januari 2013 om 10.30 uur precies door Benedicte Haraldstad Frostad geboren op 1 september 1979 te Oslo Promotores: Prof. dr. N. Enfield Prof. dr. P. C. Muysken Copromotor: Dr. A. Terrill Manuscriptcommissie: Prof. dr. K. Versteegh Prof. dr. G. Senft (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) Dr. B. Evans (Australian National University) Aknowledgements First of all, a heartfelt leana ghighiri goes out to my family in Ughele, ‘mama olo’ and ‘papa olo’, Win and Mex Pada, their children and grandchildren (my little nieces and nephews) for their hospitality and kindness. In Ughele, I have had the luck to be able to collaborate with such talented and dedicated people. My closest collaborators were Hukari Navo, chief Vili Lianga, Mex and Vinnie Pada, Massie Lianga, Christina Philips, Daisy Pada, Liobo Masokolo, Cleveland and Kevin Pada, Leana ghighiri ko na miu vinaritokai ko na tinavetena na vinekala Ughele meke gura tavaghavoro na Ughele grammar. In Nijmegen I have been working under the supervision of my promoter Pieter Muysken at Radboud University and my supervisor Angela Terrill at Radboud University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. During the later stages of my thesis writing, Nick Enfield at Radboud University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics has been supervising me in Terrill’s absence. Thank you for everything you have taught me and for the opportunities I have been given. Malcolm Ross, Åshild Næss, Carlos Gussenhoven, Bethwyn Evans, Ruth Singer, Edvard Hviding, Cato Berg and Ingjerd Hoëm have helped me with bits and pieces of my thesis and proofreading. Thank you very much for all your help. I want to direct a special thank to a handful of people that have been particularly inspirational to me and without whom I would never have moved in the direction of linguistics (an idea that never occurred to me before the second year of my Arabic studies). They are my late grandparents, Gunvor and Arne R. Haraldstad, my Arabic professor, Michael Carter, Åshild Næss, who supervised me during the work with my M. A. thesis, and the most die- hard field linguist, adventurer and Viking at the University of Oslo, Even Hovdhaugen. I would never have found my way to Nijmegen was it not for Günter Senft, who urged me to consider doing a PhD when we met in Oslo in 2006. I was working as a TTS voice developer for Nuance Communications at the time and barely dared to think of a PhD. More encouragement followed from the University of Oslo, that granted me with a month’s salary to write a PhD application to submit to the Norwegian Research Council, and from Åshild Næss, who’s support and encouragement throughout my Masters studies and work with my Ph. D. thesis has been invaluable. Aseri Yalangono in the provincial administration in Gizo and Edvard Hviding at the Institute for Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, Norway, contributed significally to get the research permits processed at the Ministry of Education in Honiara. v I am deeply indebted to the people who encouraged me and believed in me through the years, first of all my grandparents Gunvor and Arne R. Haraldstad, Christopher Dyken, Michael Carter, Åshild Næss, Hanke van Buren, Annemarie Verkerk, Hilário de Sousa, and my friends in Norway that are still there for me after all these years abroad, especially Solveig Vaa, Ida Andrine Bastiansen, Live Kure Buer, Therese Eriksen and Monica Oddsteen. vi Contents Aknowledgements....................................................................................................v Contents .....................................................................................................................v Abbreviations and conventions ...........................................................................xv The Ughele language................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Geographic location...................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Solomon Islands .................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 The two Ughele speaking communities on Rendova...................... 1 1.1.3 Neighbouring languages...................................................................... 2 1.2 Linguistic affiliation...................................................................................... 3 1.2.1 Linguistic affiliation of the Ughele language ................................... 3 1.2.2 Affiliated languages.............................................................................. 4 1.3 Typological sketch ........................................................................................ 5 1.4 Summary......................................................................................................... 7 The Ughele language community.......................................................................... 9 2.1 Historical context.......................................................................................... 9 2.1.1 Early history........................................................................................... 9 2.1.2 Recent history .....................................................................................13 2.2 Present context............................................................................................13 2.2.1 Identity in Solomon Islands ..............................................................13 2.2.2 Ughele identity....................................................................................15 2.2.3 Ughele village ......................................................................................15 2.2.4 Ughele family, marriage and kinship ..............................................15 2.2.5 Agriculture and fishing......................................................................16 2.2.6 Kastom ..................................................................................................17 2.2.7 Economy and political organization................................................18 2.2.8 The Seventh-day Adventist church and traditional beliefs.........20 2.2.9 Mobility.................................................................................................20 2.2.10 The challenge of logging..................................................................21 2.3 Sociolinguistic situation.............................................................................21 2.3.1 The status of the Ughele language...................................................21 2.3.3 Literacy .................................................................................................23 2.3.4 Contact with other speech communities........................................24 2.4 Summary.......................................................................................................24 Data and methodology...........................................................................................27 3.1 The corpus of data used in this thesis......................................................27 3.2 Fieldwork......................................................................................................30 3.2.1 Choice of language community ........................................................31 3.2.2 Fieldwork practicalities .....................................................................31 3.2.3 Consultants ..........................................................................................31 3.3 Theoretical framework for the linguistic analysis ................................32 3.4 Summary.......................................................................................................33 v Phonology ................................................................................................................35 4.1 Consonants ...................................................................................................35 4.1.1 Inventory of segmental phonemes ..................................................35 4.1.2 Stops......................................................................................................36 4.1.3 The alveolar trill..................................................................................37 4.1.4 Fricatives ..............................................................................................37 4.1.5 The affricate /ɣ/................................................................................38 4.1.6 Approximants......................................................................................38 4.1.7 Distinctive features.............................................................................38 4.2 Vowels...........................................................................................................39