Vaeakau-Taumako language: Difference between revisions

Vaeakau-Taumako
Pileni
Region	Reef Islands and Taumako, Solomon Islands
Native speakers	(1,700 cited 1999)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Polynesian Futunic ? Vaeakau-Taumako
Language codes
ISO 639-3	piv
Glottolog	pile1238
ELP	Vaeakau-Taumako

Vaeakau-Taumako (formerly known as Pileni) is a Polynesian language spoken in some of the Reef Islands as well as in the Taumako Islands (also known as the Duff Islands) in the Temotu province of the Solomon Islands.

The language is spoken throughout the Taumako Islands, while in the Reef Islands, it is spoken on Aua, Matema, Nifiloli, Nupani, Nukapu, and Pileni. Speakers are thought to be descendants of people from Tuvalu.

Vaeakau-Taumako was described by linguists Even Hovdhaugen and Åshild Næss, in the form of a dictionary and a grammar.

Classification

Vaeakau-Taumako is a Polynesian outlier. Within that group, it has traditionally been considered one of the Futunic branch, but a 2008 study (exclusively based on lexical evidence) concluded that this membership is weakly supported.

Phonology

Vowels

Vaeakau-Taumako does not vary from the standard Polynesian and Austronesian vowel system, featuring five vowels that can be used either in a long or short form. Short vowels found in word-final syllables are frequently devoiced or dropped, but long vowels in the same position are always stressed. There is little allophonic variation between vowel pronunciations.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i: /i/ and /ī/		u: /u/ and /ū/
Mid	e: /e/ and /ē/		o: /o/ and /ō/
Low		a: /a/ and /ā/

Vowel sequences in Vaeakau-Taumako are typically not treated as diphthongs, as they are not fully reduplicated, as shown in the word "holauhola". This is despite the vowels in the original word being pronounced like a diphthong.

Consonants

The Vaeakau-Taumako language has one of the most complex consonant system of the Polynesian languages, with 19 distinct phonemes, plus a large amount of variation across dialects. /b/ and /d/ are found primarily in loan words, rather being native to the language.

Aspirated sounds are characteristic of the language, and are typically strong and audible. However, the use of aspirated sounds varies across dialects, enough that it is difficult to identify a consistent pattern aside from noting they always occur at the start of stressed syllables.

		Labial	Dentalveolar	Velar
Oral stop	unvoiced, unaspirated unvoiced, aspirated voiced	p pʰ b	t tʰ d	k kʰ
Nasal	voiced, unaspirated unvoiced, aspirated	m mʰ	n nʰ	ŋ ŋʰ
Lateral	voiced, unaspirated unvoiced, aspirated		l lʰ
Fricative	voiced unvoiced	v	s	h

Morphology

Pronouns

Vaeakau-Taumako pronouns distinguish between 1st, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns. There are some inclusive and exclusive distinctions, and variations for singular, dual and plural in all cases. There are no gender distinctions. There is variation in the pronoun system for the dialects of Vaeakau-Taumako which can become quite complex, so for simplicity, only the general forms are recorded here.

Independent personal pronouns

There are two distinctive base sets of independent personal pronouns in Vaeakau-Taumako. The standard forms are used for formal occasions and recorded text, while the colloquial forms are typically found in informal, everyday conversation.

		Standard	Colloquial
Singular	1st person 2nd person 3rd person	iau, au koe ia
Dual	1st person inclusive 1st person exclusive 2nd person 3rd person	thaua mhuaua khoulua, kholua lhaua	haua houlua, holua haua
Plural	1st person inclusive 1st person exclusive 2nd person 3rd person	thatou, thatu mihatou, mhatu khoutou, khotou lhatou, lhatu	hatou, hatu houtou hatou, hatu

Bound subject pronouns

The language also features bound subject pronouns which act as clitics to the tense-aspect-mood marker of the verb of the constituent. They are not obligatory to use. The presence of the "u" has free variation by the choice of the speaker, but they are typically less prevalent in the colloquial forms.

		Standard	Colloquial
Singular	1st person 2nd person 3rd person	u=, ku= ko= ø
Dual	1st person inclusive 1st person exclusive 2nd person 3rd person	tha(u)= mha(u)= khol(u)= lha(u)=	ha= hol(u)= ha=
Plural	1st person inclusive 1st person exclusive 2nd person 3rd person	that(u)= mhat(u)= khot(u)= lhat(u)=	hat(u)= hot(u)= hat(u)=

Hortative pronouns

The dual, plural and 2nd person singular have specific pronouns used in imperative and hortative sentences.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person inclusive		ta	tatu, hatu, tatou
1st person exclusive		ma	matu
2nd person	ko	lu	tu
3rd person		la	latu, hatu

Emphatic corefential pronouns

When the subject and direct object of a sentence are the same thing, repetition of the independent pronoun in place of both argument positions is typically used. However, there is a set of emphatic coreferential pronouns used for the direct object to refer to someone or a group of people acting alone.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person inclusive		okhitaua	okithatou
1st person exclusive	okhoiau	okhimaua	okimhatou
2nd person	okhoe	okhoulua	okhoutou
3rd person	okhoia	okhilaua	okilhatou

The general pronoun nga

The word nga functions as a pronoun with specific use. It is a third person pronoun, but lacks specification for number, and is used to refer to both singular and plural referents. It typically is an anaphoric reference to a previously mentioned referent.

Possession

Control

While it is common for Polynesian languages to distinguish between alienability and inalienability with a and o possessives, this is not the case for Vaeakau-Taumako. This distinction exists, however it instead marks control – not of the possessed item itself, but of the possessive relationship.

A-possessives

Relationships that can be initiated or terminated freely, such as items that can be bought, sold or given away at will are marked with the a-possessive.

O-possessives

Relationships that are outside of the possessor's personal control, such as body parts and kinship relationships are marked with o-possessives.

Alienability and inalienability

Instead of a- and o- possessives, alienability and inalienability in Vaeakau-Taumako are distinguished by the use of either prenominal or postnominal possessive pronouns.

Prenominal possessive pronouns

Prenominal possessive pronouns occur directly preceding the possessed nouns, and are typically used for inalienable relationships, such as kinship terms and body parts. Prenominal possessive pronouns distinguish between singular, dual and plural of the possessor. The singular possessive forms make an additional distinction between singular and plural of the possessed entity, and encode the a- or o-possessive directly. The dual and plural possessor forms are combined with the possessive prepositions a and o to express this distinction, or they may occur without a preposition.

		Singular possessed	Plural possessed
Singular	1st person 2nd person 3rd person	taku, toku/tuku tau, tō tana, tona, tena, na	aku, oku au, ou/ō ana, ona
Dual	1st person inclusive 1st person inclusive 2nd person 3rd person	(a/o) ta (a/o) ma (a/o) lu (a/o) la
Plural	1st person inclusive 1st person exclusive 2nd person 3rd person	(a/o) tatu (a/o) matu (a/o) koto, (a/o) tu (a/o) latu

Postnominal possessive pronouns

The postnominal possessive pronoun succeeds the possessed noun, and are used to mark alienable relationships, such as owned items. They make no distinction between singular and plural of the possessed item, instead the distinction is usually made through the choice of article preceding the possessed noun. Like with prenominal possessive pronouns, the postnominal possessives are based on the possessive prepositions a and o, plus a pronominal form indicating person and number of the possessor. In the singular form, this is the same set of suffixes found on the prenominal possessives, whereas in the dual and plural form, a distinct set of person and number forms are found. In the third and first person, these forms are identical to the independent personal pronouns, except for the lack of aspiration on the initial consonant.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person inclusive		taua	tatou
1st person exclusive	aku, oku	maua	matou
2nd person	au, ou	aulua, oulua	autou, outou
3rd person	ana, ona	laua	latou

Possessive Suffixes

The possessive suffixes -ku (1st person), -u (2nd person) and -na (3rd person) apply to a restricted set of kinship nouns: tama/mha ‘father’, hina ‘mother’, thoka ‘same-sex sibling’, thupu ‘grandparent’, and mokupu ‘grandchild’. These nouns cannot occur without possessive marking, they require either a possessive suffix or, in the dual and plural, a postnominal possessive pronoun. An alternative construction is for these nouns to take the 3rd person possessive suffix -na in combination with a prenominal possessive pronoun or possessive prepositional phrase. The form in -na must in such cases be understood as a neutral or unmarked form, since it may combine with a pronoun of any person and number; but a form in -na without any further possessive marking is unambiguously 3rd person. Nouns other than those previously mentioned do not take possessive suffixes, but instead combine with possessive pronouns.

Negation

Vaeako-Taumako displays negation in prohibitions (prohibitive, irrealis, imperfective, admonitive), statements (verbal and non verbal) polar questions and noun phrases. Negation morphemes behave similarly to verbs in many respects although they do not take tense-aspect-mood markers or form independent predicates. However, there are instances of their taking complement clauses and for this reason negation morphemes might be considered a sub-class of verb.

Prohibition

Prohibitive clauses may be divided into two. Prohibitive auā, (equal to the English 'don't') and Admonitive na. Prohibitives pattern themselves in similar ways and are most frequently positioned cause initially. Admonitives behave and distribute slightly differently as will be illustrated below.

Negated clauses appear with only a small range of tense-aspect-mood markers. Prohibitive clauses often display no tense-aspect-mood marker at all, if they do, the markers are either na irrealis or me prescriptive. Negated declarative clauses typically occur with either perfective ne or imperfective no, with other options only marginally represented in collected data.

Prohibitive auā

auā appears clause-initially, however discourse particles such as nahilā (’take care, make sure’) may precede it. Other grammatical morphemes such as articles or markers of tense, aspect or mood may not precede it which excludes auā from the verb category of Vaeakao-Taumako.

1.1

auā	t-a-u	hano
PROH SG.	SP-POSS-2G.POSS	go. SG

Auā tau hano!

‘Don’t go.’

However, auā behaves like a verb in that it may take clausal complements, which are then often either nominalised or the irrealis marker na is present (see table 1.1.3). A correlation exists between singular 2nd person subject and a nominalised clause although this correlation is not absolute.

1.1 a

auā	ko=no	hualonga
PROH	2SG=IPFV	make.noise

Auā ko no hualonga!

‘Don’t make noise!’

Contrasting this, the 2nd person dual or plural subjects attract the irrealis marker na to create a prohibitive clause.

1.1 b

auā	kholu=na	ō
PROH	2DU=IRR	go.PL

Auā kholuna ō!

‘Don’t you (two) go!’

Within data sets of Næss, A., & Hovdhaugen, E. (2011), as implied by the imperative nature of the morpheme, auā will tend to appear with 2nd person subjects as above, although both 1st and 3rd subjects are also found.

1st Person

1.1 c

tatu	noho	themu,	auā	hat=no	holongā
1PL.INCL.HORT	stay	quiet	PROH	PL.INCL=IPFV	make.noise

Tatu noho themu, auā hatno folongā

‘We should all sit still and not be noisy.’

3rd Person

1.1 d

o

ia

auā

no

kute-a

mai

t-o-ku

mata

ia

a iau

auā

t-a-ku

kut-a

ange

o-na

mata

CONJ

3SG

PROH

IPFV

see-TR

come

SG.SP-POSS-1SG.POSS

eye

CONJ

PERS 1SG

PROH

SG.SP-POSS-1SG.POSS

see-TR

go.along

POSS-3SG.POSS

eye

O ia auā no kutea mai tuku mata, ia a iau auā taku kuteange ona mata.

‘She is not allowed to look at my face, ‘and I cannot look at her face.’

Auā is also found in conjunction with modifiers such as ala which marks a hypothetical or oki, ‘back, again’.

auā-ala

1.1.1

auā	ala	t-a-u	fai-a	e	anga	e	tapeo	i	taha
PROH	HYP SG.SP-POSS-2SG	POSS	do-TR.	SG. NSP	work	GENR	bad	LDA	side

Auā ala tau faia e anga e tapeo i taha

‘You should not do bad things outside.’

auā - oki

1.1.2

auā	oki	t-ō	hai-a	ange	oki	la	mua	nei	oki	la
PROH	again	SG.SP-2S.POSS	do-TR	go.along	again	DM.3	place	DEM.1	again	DM.3

Auoki tō haiange oki la manei oki la

‘Don’t ever do that anymore here.’

Irrealis na and Imperfective no

Irrealis na and imperfective no adheres to a common pattern of appearing in 2nd person in dual or plural within prohibitive clause structure.

1.1.3

auā	kholu=	na
PROH	2DU=IRR	go.PL

Auā kholuna  !

‘Don’t you (two) go!’

Instances of 3rd person are less frequent and tend to include the imperfective no in postposition to morpheme auā.

1.1.3 a

a	heinga	auā	no	hū	ite	koe
COLL	thing	PROH	IPFV	hidden	LDA	2SG

A heinga auā no hū ite koe.

‘Nothing shall be hidden from you.’

Admonitive na

na behaves similarly to aluā only in that it is clause initial, it is otherwise classified as a clause initial particle and it must be accompanied by the tense-aspect-mood marker me which acts as a prescriptive.

1.1.4

na	me	ta-ai	te	tangata
ADMON	PRSC	hit-TR	SG.SP	man

Na me teia te tangara!

‘Don’t kill the man!’

However na also has a second function, it acts to point out the consequences of disobeying the order. In this role the na often appears without me, creating a clause without tense-aspect-mood marking.

1.1.4 a

Meri	noho	lavoi	na	me	sepe
Mary	stay	good	ADMON	PRSC	expose.oneself

Meri noho lavoi, na me sepe.

‘Mary, sit properly, do not expose yourself.’

Statements

Verbal Clause Negation

Verbal negation is made up of three morphemes which act independently and may be understood as the English equivalents to siai ‘not’, sikiai ‘not yet’,and hiekh ‘not at all’.

siai ‘not, no’

According to Næss, A., & Hovdhaugen, E. (2011) the colloquial pronunciation of siai is hiai, however the standard written form is siai. Siai comes after preverbal arguments but is placed before the tense-aspect-mood particle and following clitic pronoun.

2.1.1

ko	ia	siai	ne	longo	ange	ki	a	sina	na
TOP	3SG	NEG	PFV	listen	go.along	to	PERS	mother	3SG.POSS

Ko ia siai ne longo ange ki a sinana.

‘She did not listen to her mother.’

As in the case of auā modifying particles, which are traditionally found after verbs, may appear following siai. An example of this is loa which is an emphatic marker.

For example, siai loa.

2.1.1 a

e	mae	loa	te	kai	ia	siai	oki	ne-i	fui-a	o-na	mata
GNR	refuse	EMPH	SG.SP	eat	CONJ	NEG	again	PFV-3SG	wash-TR	POSS-3SG.POSS	eye

E mae loa te kai ia siai oki nei fuia ona mata.

'He refused to eat, and he didn't wash his face either.’

A further example is the addition of po which generally serves to connect a complement clause.

2.1.1 b

siai	po	ke	ila~ila	sika
NEG	COMP	HORT	RED~look	straight

Siai po ke ileila sika.

‘She did not feel safe.’

sikiai, hikiai ‘not yet’

sikiai, hikiai (where sikiai is the formal written expression of spoken hikiai) appears in the same formation as above siai except it proceeds the preverbal argument and precedes any tense-aspect-mood markers. It appears less frequently and is often accompanied by the perfective marker ne.

2.1.2

A	Osil	sikiai	ne	ala
PERS	Åshild	not.yet	PFV	wake

A Osil hikiai ne ala.

‘Åshild is not yet up.’

hiekhī/hiekhiē ‘not at all’

This is the emphatic form of the negator. It follows the same distribution as both sia and sikiai and is often accompanied by the post-nuclear modifier loa.

2.1.3

hiekhī	loa	ne-i	kute-a	te	ali	na
not.at.all	EMPH	PFV-3SG	see-TR	SG.SP	flatfish	DM.2

Hiekhī loa nei kutea te ali na.

‘He couldn’t find the flatfish at all.’

As with siai hiekhī appears in conjunction with complementiser po, although with lower frequency.

2.1.3 a

a	thatou	hiekhiē	po	no	kutea	i	mui	thatu=no	utu~utu	ai	na
PERS	1PL.INCL	not.at.all	COMP	IPFV	see-TR	some	place	1PL.INCL=IPFV	RED ~draw	OBL.PRO	DEM.2

A thatou hiekhiē po no kutea i mui thatuno utuutu ai na.

‘We had no idea where to draw water.’

Non-verbal Clause Negation

The same negators are used as in the verbal clauses above.

2.1.4

a	Malani	na	siai	e	vai	ai
then	Malani	DEM.2	NEG	SG.NSP	water	OBL.PRO

A Malani na siai e vai ai.

‘And Malani, there was no water there.’

Questions

Polar Questions

Polar questions are commonly formed in three ways. A declarative clause with a rise in intonation to mark the interrogative which requires the binary, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, much as they are in English may be used. The second alternative is the addition of the verbal negator (o) siai ‘(or) not’ and the third is the addition of verbal negator sikiai (not yet) if the interrogative has a temporal element.

Simple interrogative formed with declarative clause:

3.1

tha=ka	ō	mua?
1DU.INCL=FUT	go.PL	just

Thaka ō mua?

‘Shall we go?’

3.1 a

(o) siai

E	ai	mua	etai	ne	au	o	sai
GNR	exist	just	person	PFV	come	CONJ	NEG

E ai mua etai ne au o siai? (NUP)

‘Has anyone come here?’

3.1 b

sikiai

a

hina-na

ko-i

taku-a

ange

po

ke

hano

mua

oi

kute-a

mua

a

thaupē

po

ka

lanu

o

sikiai

PERS

mother-3SG.POSS

INCP-3SG

say-TR

go.along

COMP

HORT

go.SG

just

CONJ

see-TR

just

PERS

lagoon

COMP

FUT

rise

CONJ

not.yet

A hinana koi takuange po ke hano moa oi kutea moa a haupƝ po ko lanu e hikiai?

‘His mother told him to go and see if the tide was rising yet.’

Noun Phrase Negation

Negated Existence

Non-specific article e can be used to express 'negated existence' unless the noun has a possessive marker in which case e is absent.

3.1.1

siai	loa	e	mahila	k=u	kapakapa	ai	i	hale
NEG	EMPH	SG.NSP	knife	HORT=1SG	work	OBL.PRO	LDA	house

Hiai loa e mahila ku kapakapai i hale.

‘There is no knife for me to use in the house.’

Spatial Deixis

Spatial deixis is primarily expressed through demonstratives and directional forms in Vaeakau-Taumako. These spatial-deictic forms “allow the speaker to point to spatial locations” and encode the context of utterances or speech events. Interestingly, demonstrative and directional usage in Vaeakau-Taumako is particularly unique for a Polynesian language. This illustrates that spatial deixis is an especially important feature of Vaeakau-Taumako grammar. Demonstratives and directionals are discussed in more detail below.

Demonstratives

Vaeakau-Taumako demonstratives comprise a three-term system which is summarised below:

Figure 1

Demonstrative	English Translation
ne(i)	'here, close to speaker'
na	'there, close to addressee, some distance away'
la	'there, away from both speaker and hearer, quite far away

Overall, these demonstratives have not only nominal and adverbial uses, but are also used in various capacities to structure discourse. The demonstrative particles also occur in more complex forms (see verbal demonstratives and deictic adverbs below).

Historical context

Vaeakau-Taumako demonstratives have cognates in other Polynesian languages. These demonstratives are also consistent with what has been reconstructed for Proto-Polynesian and Proto-Oceanic. These linguistic reconstructions are summarised below:

Figure 2

Language	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Proto-Oceanic	*ni/*ne	*na	*ra(i)
Proto-Polynesian	*ni/*nei	*na	*ra
Tongan	e-ni	e-na	ia
Irafa-Mele	-nei	- nā	rā
Vaeakau-Taumako	ne(i)	na	la
Samoan	(le)nei	(le)nā	le(lā)
Marquesan	nei	nā	ʔā, aʔā

Furthermore, in the following discussion it will become evident that Boumma Fijian shares multiple linguistic traits with Vaeakau-Taumako. Therefore, it is possible that Boumma Fijian may be more closely related to Vaeakau-Taumako than other Polynesian languages.

Speaker-based system

The Vaeakau-Taumako demonstrative system is speaker-based: the location of the hearer or speaker serves as reference point for where the relevant object is located. Denny summarised this succinctly in describing this system as one that centers space on the speaker or other participant. In Vaeakau-Taumako, ‘ne(i)’ reflects an object’s proximity to the speaker, ‘na’ reflects an object’s proximity to the hearer and ‘la’ reflects distance from both the speaker and hearer, or a third party in the conversation.

This three-way distinction is so common in Oceanic languages that it is “virtually certain” that Proto-Oceanic also adopted a person-based demonstrative system. On a global scale, this three-way contrast is the second most common demonstrative system in the languages listed on The World Atlas of Linguistic Structures(WALS), with a two-way contrast being the most common system.

Vaeakau-Taumako's speaker-based system can be rationalised by the geographic context in which it is spoken. As the language is spoken on islands in the Solomon Islands, the speakers inhabit relatively small environments that do not have naturally defined reference points to describe space. To compensate for this, demonstratives are instead based on the speakers and hearers who are in the “immediate speech situation”.

Distance-based system

However, discourse analyses of current demonstrative usage indicates that the system may be shifting to one that is distance-based and therefore not dependent on the speech-act participants. This is summarised below:

Figure 3

Demonstrative	English Translation
ne(i)	'here, close by'
na	'there, some distance away; neither very near nor very far'
la	'there, far away'

‘Na’ is generally the preferred neutral choice of demonstrative to refer to an object that is neither far nor close. Therefore ‘na’ is not only used in direct conversations to illustrate proximity with a speech-participant (e.g. ‘that one near you'), but it is also used in narratives as a medial term of a distance-based system. In these narrative contexts, ‘na’ refers to an object that is distance-neutral or medium-distance. This dual purpose of 'na' is not completely unique to Vaeakau-Taumako as Boumaa Fijian also adopts a "mixed" system.

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstratives in Vaeakau-Taumako can be used as heads of noun phrases that are comparable to the English phrases 'this one' and 'that one'. In this capacity, the demonstrative is often preceded by the articles ‘te’ (indicating singularity) or ‘ngha’ (indicating plurality). This is typical for a Polynesian language. The following example shows the demonstrative ‘na’ (‘that’), being used in conjunction with the prefix ‘te’ to denote singularity:

Figure 4.1

Ko	te-na	e	ika	efa.
TOP	ART-DEM	ART	Fish	bg.
‘That is a big fish.’

Furthermore the following example shows the prefix ‘ngha’ attaching to the demonstrative ‘la’ ('those') to indicate plurality:

Figure 4.2

Ngha-la	a	hahine	e	toko-lua	ma	te	memea	e	ko-tahi
PL.SP-DEM.3	COLL	woman	GENR	CLASS-two	CONJ	SG.SP	child	GENR	PRE-one
‘There were two women and a child (literal meaning: those ones, the women were two and the child was one).’

Alternatively, the demonstratives can occur as a free-standing lexical item (i.e. without the need for preceding articles). This more unique aspect of Vaeakau-Taumako is exemplified in the following clause:

Figure 4.3

Na	e	kio
DEM	ART	chicken.
‘That is a chicken’.

When acting as heads of nouns, the demonstratives may also be used anaphorically to refer to previously mentioned objects/participants in the conversation. The demonstratives can therefore serve the same purpose as a third-person pronoun (see Figure 4.4 below). Cross-linguistically this is not common, with the 100 of the 225 languages on WALS having language systems where third person pronouns are unrelated to demonstratives. 

Figure 4.4

ila	mua	a	nohine	a-u	la	nga	te-la	ia
look	just	PERS	wife	POSS-2SG.POSS	DEM.3	PRON.3	SG.SP-DEM.3	3SG
‘Look, that is your wife there.’

Demonstrative adjective

Demonstratives also function to modify a noun phrase in Vaeakau-Taumako. They can be used with nouns or pronouns and can function as a deictic or anaphoric reference. The following example shows how the demonstrative ‘na’ ('that') is suffixed to the noun ‘mhe’ ('man') for a deictic purpose:

Figure 5.1

a	mhe-na	ko=ne	lau-a	i	hea	na
PERS	man-DEM.2	2SG=PFV	find-TR	LDA	where	DEM.2
‘Where did you find that man?’

This second example shows how the demonstrative 'ne' can be used as an anaphoric reference:

Figure 5.2

thai	lhatou	e	Diuku	te	tai	ne	e	ingoa	ko	Diuku
one	3PL	SG.NSP	Diuku	SG.SP	person	DEM.1	SG.NSP	name	TOP	Diuku
‘One of them was Diuku, this man is called Diuku.’

When a demonstrative is used with a pronoun, the demonstrative often (but not always) corresponds with the speech-act participant that is being referred to in the respective pronoun. Therefore ‘ne’ will be generally used with first person pronouns, ‘na’ will be used with second person pronouns and ‘la’ will be used with third person pronouns. However, ‘na’ can also be adopted as a neutral particle that is used interchangeably with third person and second person pronouns.

Local adverbial demonstratives

Demonstratives in Vaeakau-Taumako also function as local adverbs that modify a verb and indicate the location in which the respective action occurs:

Figure 6.1

a	thatu=e	ilo-a	po	a	kio	no	tahao	ne	i	nghauta
PERS	1PL.INC=GENR	know-TR	COMP	COLL	chicken	IPFV	stroll	DEM.1	LDA	shore
‘We know that chickens wander around here, on land (as opposed to the sea).’

When being used in this adverbial capacity, the demonstratives also have temporal-deictic references to refer to time (i.e. ‘now’ and ‘then’):

Figure 6.2

ilhatu=ne	ta-ia	i	mua	ne	a-na	ko	ia	u=ka	tala∼tala-a	atu	ne
3PL=PFV	hit-TR	LDA	place	DEM.1	then-DEM.2	TOP	3SG	1SG=FUT	RED∼tell-TR	go.out	DEM.1
‘They killed him in this place, I will tell you about it now.’

Verbal demonstratives

In Vaeakau-Taumako, the formal class of adverbs is limited, so manner adverbial demonstratives with the meanings ‘do/be like this, do/be like that’ are regularly utilised. These verbal demonstratives are cross-linguistically rare, however Boumaa Fijian and Dyirbal also exhibit similar forms. For example, in Fijian ‘eneii’ functions like the verbal demonstratives in Vaeakau-Taumako. The Vaeakau-Taumako forms are created by attaching the prefix ‘p(h)e’ to the core demonstrative particles:

Figure 7.1

Adverbial demonstrative	English Translation
phenē	'do/be like this'
phenā	'do/be like that'
phelā	'do/be like that'

This first example shows the adverbial demonstrative ‘phe-ne’ being used to convey the meaning ‘do like this’:

Figure 7.2

noho	phe-ne
sit	like-DEM.1
‘Sit like this!’

Secondly, verbal demonstratives also function to mean ‘be the same as, in the same way’:

Figure 7.3

e	phe-na	mai	i	Kahula	hano	mai	ki	nghauta
GENR	like-DEM.2	come	LDA	Kahula	go.SG	come	to	shore
‘It was the same as in Kahula, he went to the village there’

Thirdly, the verbal demonstratives can function as modifiers of nouns to mean ‘an X like that’ (Figure 7.4) or ‘a certain X’ (Figure 7.5):

FIgure 7.4

thatu=no	he-henga	ange	e	niu	boho	e	taveli	a	hinga	phe-na
lPL.INCL=IPFV	RED∼search	go.along	SG.NSP	coconut	young	SG.NSP	banana	COLL	thing	like-DEM.2
'We have looked for coconuts, bananas, things like that.'

Figure 7.5

po	lhatu=ka	ta-pena	ala	la	i	te	langi	phe-la
COMP	3PL=FUT	PREP-prepare	HYP	DEM.3	LDA	SG.SP	day	like-DEM.3
'They were to be ready on a certain day.'

This complex three-way distinction in which verbal demonstratives can be used is not only uncommon cross-linguistically, but it is also atypical among the languages which do have similar verbal demonstrative systems. Dyirbal and Boumaa Fijian only adopt a single verb to denote ‘do it like this’ in comparison to Vaeakau-Taumako's three-way system.

Deictic adverbs

Vaeakau-Taumako also has deictic adverbs that are formed by applying the prefixes ‘a-’, ‘i-'or ‘e-’ to the core demonstrative particles. These forms are summarised below:

Figure 8.1

Proximal	Medial/neutral	Distal
anē ‘and now’	anā ‘and then’	alā ‘and then’
inē ‘here, now’	inā ‘there, then’	Ilā ‘there, then’
	enā ‘somewhere there’

It is worth noting that ‘ena’ ('somewhere there') appears to only have a spatial reference. Furthermore the usage of 'ena' seems restricted to colloquial contexts:  

Figure 8.2

a	ko-i	taku-a	ange	po	ī	e-na	na	po	ni	vai	ai
then	INCP-3SG	say-TR	go.along	COMP	INTJ	PRE-DEM.2	DEM.2	COMP	PL.NSP	Water	OBL.PRO
‘And he said, “Oh, somewhere here there is water.”’

Demonstratives in discourse  

Demonstrative particles commonly occur at the end of phrases. This applies to a variety of phrase types, with the following examples illustrating how 'na' can occur phrase-finally in a noun phrase (Figure 9.1), a verb phrase (Figure 9.2) and an adverbial phrase (Figure 9.3):

Figure 9.1

te	hahine	na	ko	le∼lek∼ake	na
SG.SP	woman	DEM.2	INCP	RED∼go∼go.up	DEM.2
'The woman went up.'

Figure 9.2

ko	hano	na	e	kau∼kau	i	thaupē	na
INCP	go.SG	DEM.2	GENR	RED∼swim	LDA	lagoon	DEM.2
'He went and bathed in the lagoon.'

Figure 9.3

matea	atiao	ala	na	thatu=ka	ō	atu	mua	hangota	i	Malimi
maybe	tomorrow	HYP	DEM.2	lPL.INCL=FUT	go.PL	go.out	just	fish	LDA	Malimi
'Maybe tomorrow we will go fishing at Malimi.'

Beyond deictic and anaphoric uses of demonstratives (which have been discussed above), another core use of demonstratives is for phrase demarcation. Demonstratives occur at the end of a phrase as a means of marking the phrase boundary and situating the phrase within the overarching context of the clause. In Vaeakau-Taumako, demonstratives are commonly used to indicate that there is a link between the demonstrative-marked phrase and the succeeding speech. It is often used in conjunction with rising intonation to indicate that “more is coming” (Figure 9.4 below). Similar demarcative particle morphemes are used in the Outlier East Futuna with the particle ‘la’.

Figure 9.4

mhatu=ne

ō

ake

na

ioko

a

lakau

na

ko

pae

ino

ki

te

ala

na

lPL.EXCL=PFV

go.PL

go. up

DEM.2

CONJ

COLL

tree

DEM.2

INCP

scatter

fall

to

SG.SP

path

DEM.2

'We went up, and the trees, they were scattered all over the road.,'

e

takoto

na

e

tapeo

loa

GENR

lie

DEM.2

GENR

bad

EMPH

'they were lying there, it was very bad.'

Directionals

In addition to demonstratives, Vaeakau-Taumako also has a set of morphemes that indicate verbal deixis (i.e. the physical or metaphorical direction in which an action is being carried out). There are six morphemes which can be divided into two categories (Figure 1.1 and 1.2). The directionals are best described as verbs that are most commonly used as part of a verbal nucleus, following one or more verbs. The first category of Vaeakau-Taumako directionals is summarised below:

Figure 1.1 - Person-based directionals (indicate direction relative to speech-act participants)

Directional	English translation
mai	Towards speaker
atu	Towards hearer
ange	Towards hearer
ange	Away from both speaker and hearer, toward a third person, along

The following example shows ‘mai’ ('towards speaker') following another verb and marking the direction in space in which the act is occurring (i.e. towards the speech-act participants):

Figure 1.1.a

me	le-mai	na	o	kake
PRSC	go-come	DEM.2	to	climb
'Come here and climb aboard (the canoe).'

The second category of directionals is summarised below:

Figure 1.2 - Directionals that denote direction on a vertical axis

Directional	English translation
ake	'up'
iho	'down'
oho	'vertical movement, up or down'

The following examples show ‘iho’ ('down') and ‘oho’ ('up or down') following another verb and marking the vertical direction in which the respective verb occurs:

Figure 1.2.a

tatu	noho	iho	i	te	lakau	a	ngha	lepū	na
lPL.INCL.HORT	stay	go.down	LDA	SG.SP	tree	POSS	PL.SP	rat	DEM.2
'Let us sit down on the rafter of the rats.’

Figure 1.2.b

Noho	oho	ki	lalo
stay	go.vertically	LDA	under
‘Sit down!’.

Independent usage

Directionals may also be used as independent verbs, with ‘iho’ and ‘oho’ being the most commonly used forms. When used as independent verbs, ‘iho’ means ‘go down’ (Figure 2.1) and ‘oho’ means ‘move vertically; rise up; go down’ (Figure 2.2):

Figure 2.1

Ko	iho	ma	ia	e	thū
INCP	go.down	with	3SG	GENR	stand
‘She went down with it and stood (there)’.

Figure 2.2

lhatou	ko oho	lhatou	ko	iho	oho	ki	nghauta
3PL	INCP	go.vertically	3PL INCP	go.down	go.vertically	to	shore
'They went down and came to the village.'

Furthermore ‘mai’ can function as an independent verb to mean ‘come’ (Figure 2.3). This commonly occurs in imperative clauses, which is typically how cognates of ‘mai’ in related Polynesian languages are also used.

Figure 2.3

lhatu=ko	ha-haloki	oho	po	mai	tatu	la-ina	i	nghauta
3PL=INCP	RED-call.PL	go. vertically	COMP	come	lPL.INCL.HORT	sun-TR	LDA	shore
'They called to him, "Come here, let us sunbathe on the shore.'"

It is also interesting to note that ‘mai’ can not only encode a literal direction, but also a metaphorical ‘social’ direction. In the example below (Figure 2.4), ‘mai’ denotes ‘towards me’ in a metaphorical sense that is ‘for me; for my benefit; on my behalf’:

FIgure 2.4

oi-na	mai	a	iau
help-TR	come	PERS	lSG
Help me!'

Lastly ‘atu’ also functions an independent verb which means ‘move out, go away’. This is shown in the below example (note: ‘poi’ is a prenuclear modifier that precedes verbs):

Figure 2.5

a	koe	poi	atu
PERS	2SG	little	go.out
'You get away! You move out!'

Historical context

Vaeakau-Taumako directionals have cognates in most other Polynesian and Oceanic languages. The corresponding reconstructed forms in Proto-Oceanic were directional verbs that occurred either independently or in serialisation constructions with another verb. The reflexes of these forms occur in modern Oceanic languages in variety of formal word classes. For example, in Tuvaluan, 'mai' ('hither'), 'atu' ('thither'), 'aka' ('up') and 'ifo' ('down') have been classified as adverbs, while directionals are categorised as 'particles' in Somoan.

Abbreviations

The abbreviations used in the above examples are listed below:

Grammatical glosses

ADMON admonitive

AG agentive marker

APPL applicative suffix

BEN benefactive

CAUS causative prefix

CLASS classifier

COLL collective

CONI conjunction

COMP complementizer

DEM demonstrative

DES desiderative

DIST distributive

DU dual

DY dyad particle

EMPH emphatic particle

EXCL exclusive

FUT future

GENR general tense-aspect -mood marker

HORT hortative

HYP hypothetical particle

INCL inclusive

INCP inceptive

INTI interjection

IPFV imperfective

IRR irrealis

LDA locative-directional-ablative

NEG negative

NMLZ nominalizing suffix

NSP nonspecific

OBL.PRO oblique pro-forru

OPT optative

PERS personal marker PFV perfective

PL plural

POSS possessive

pp predicative possessive particle

PREF prefix; gloss uncertain

PROH prohibitive

PRON pronoun

PRSC prescriptive

PST past

RECP reciprocal

RED reduplication

SG singular

SP specific

TOP topicalizing preposition

TR transitive suffix

voc vocative

I 1st person

2 2nd person

3 3rd person

Lexical categories

adj adjective

adv adverb

gn geographical narue

In local noun

n, en corrnnon noun

part particle

pron pronoun

prep prepos1t10n

quant quantifier

VI intransitive verb

vsem semi-transitive verb

vt transitive verb

Notes

• References from Næss, Åshild; Hovdhaugen, Even (2011). A Grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-023826-6.:

• Other sources

Bibliography

• Næss, Åshild; Hovdhaugen, Even (2011). A Grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-023826-6..
• Hovdhaugen, Even (2006). A Short Dictionary of the Vaeakau-Taumako Language. Oslo: Kon-Tiki Museum, Institute for Pacific Archaeology and Cultural History..

External links

• Portions of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer in Pileni
• Paradisec has a number of collections that include Vaeakau-Taumako language materials.