Vaeakau-Taumako language

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
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.

The language has traditionally been considered one of the Futunic group of Polynesian languages, 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 pronounciations (Naess and Hovdhaugen 2011:23-27).

	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 (Naess and Hovdhaugen 2011:28).

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 (Naess and Hovdhaugen 2011:34-35).

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 (Naess and Hovdhaugen 2011:36).

		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 unvoived, 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 (Naess and Hovdhaugen 2011:98).

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 (Naess and Hovdhaugen 2011:99-100).

		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 (Naess and Hovdhaugen 2011:103-104).

		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 (Naess and Hovdhaugen 2011:105).

	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 (Naess and Hovdhaugen 2011:106).

	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. (Naess and Hovdhaugen 2011:106-107).

References

• Næss, Åshild and Hovdhaugen, Even. 2011. A Grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako. Göttingen: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-023826-6.

External links

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World (unknown ed.). SIL International.
• Portions of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer in Pileni