Tolomako language

Tolomako
Spoken in	Vanuatu
Region	Big Bay, Espiritu Santo Island
Native speakers	fewer than 500  (date missing)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic Vanuatu North Vanuatu Santo–Malekula Santo West Santo Tolomako
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tlm

Tolomako is a language of the Oceanic subgroup of Austronesian languages. It is spoken on Santo island in Vanuatu. It distinguishes four numbers for its personal pronouns: singular, dual, trial, plural. Its verbs have no tense or aspect marking, but two moods, realis and irrealis. Substantives and numerals also have the same two moods. E.g.

na	tatsua	mo	tea	mo	tsoa
realis	person	realis	one	realis	not to be

Someone is missing
 

te	tatsua	i	tea	mo	tsoa
irrealis	person	irrealis	one	realis	not to be

There is nobody.
 

Tolomako is characterized by having dentals where the mother language had labials before front vowels. It shares this feature with Sakao, but not with its very close dialect Tsureviu. Thus:

    

Tolomako		Tsureviu
tei		pei	"water"
nata		mata	"eye"

 
When labials do occur preceding front vowels they seem to be reflexes of older labiovelars:

    

Tolomako		Tsureviu
pei		pei	"good"
mata		mata	"snake"

Compare with Fijian ŋata "snake" (spelt gata).

It has been speculated that Tolomako is a very simplified daughter-language or pidgin of the neighboring language Sakao. However, Tolomako is more likely a sister language of Sakao, not a pidgin. It cannot be phonologically derived from Sakao, whereas Sakao can be from Tolomako to some extent. Comparing Tolomako with its close dialect of Tsureviu allows to reconstruct an earlier state, from which most of Sakao can be regularly derived. This earlier state is very close to what can be reconstructed of Proto-Vanuatu. Thus Tolomako is a very conservative language, whereas Sakao has undergone drastic innovations in its phonology and grammar, both in the direction of increased complexity.

Phonology

Tolomako vowels front unrounded back rounded close i u mid e o open a

Tolomako consonants labial alveolar velar nasal m n plosive p t k affricate ts fricative β ɣ trill r approximant l

Tolomako has a simple syllable structure, maximally consonant-vowel-vowel: V, CV, VV, CVV.

Deixis

There are three degrees of deixis, here/this, there/that, yonder/yon.

Nouns

Tolomako has inalienably possessed nouns, which are regularly derived:

tsiɣo- "mouth" Tolomako English na tsiɣo-ku "my mouth" na tsiɣo-mu "thy mouth" na tsiɣo-na "his/her/its mouth" na tsiɣo-... "...'s mouth"

βulu- "hair" Tolomako English na βulu-ku "my hair" na βulu-mu "thy hair" na βulu-na "his/her/its hair" na βulu-... "...'s hair"

Syntax

Tolomako syntax is isolating. It has a single preposition, ne, for all relationships of space and time; below it is used to distinguish the object of a verb from the instrument used.

Tolomako

mo	losi	na	pœ	ne	na	matsa
S/he	hits	ART	pig	PREP	ART	club
"He hits (kills) the pig with a club"

External links

• Ethnologue report
• A 1992 mailing list message from Jacques Guy, describing some of his fieldwork on the language
• A 1994 message from Jacques Guy, citing Tolomako as a counterexample to the thesis that all languages are equally complex