Tamambo language
| Tamambo | |
|---|---|
| Malo | |
| Native to | Vanuatu |
| Region | Malo Island, Espiritu Santo |
Native speakers | 4,000 (2001)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mla Malo[2] |
| Glottolog | malo1243 Tamambo |
| ELP | Tamambo |
Tamambo,[3] or Malo,[1][2] is an Oceanic language spoken by 4,000 people on Malo and nearby islands in Vanuatu.
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Low | a |
/i u/ become [j w] respectively when unstressed and before another vowel. /o/ may also become [w] for some speakers.
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labiovelarized | |||||
| Nasal | m | mʷ | n | ŋ | ||
| Stop | prenasalized | ᵐb | ᵐbʷ | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | |
| plain | t | k | ||||
| Fricative | voiced | β | βʷ | x | ||
| voiceless | s | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
The prenasalized postalveolar stop /ᶮɟ/ is often affricated and voiceless, i.e. [ᶮtʃ].
Younger speakers often realize /β/ as [f] initially and [v] medially, while /βʷ/ is often replaced by [w].
/x/ is usually realized as [x] initially, but some speakers use [h]. Medially, it may be pronounced as any of [x ɣ h ɦ ɡ].
Writing system
Few speakers of Tamambo are literate, and there is no standard orthography. Spelling conventions used include:
| Phoneme | Representation |
|---|---|
| /ᵐb/ | B initially, mb medially. |
| /ᵐbʷ/ | Bu or bw initially, mbu or mbw medially. |
| /x/ | C or h. |
| /ⁿd/ | D initially, nd medially. |
| /ᶮɟ/ | J initially, nj medially. |
| /k/ | K. |
| /l/ | L. |
| /m/ | M. |
| /mʷ/ | Mu or mw. |
| /n/ | N. |
| /ŋ/ | Ng. |
| /r/ | R. |
| /s/ | S. |
| /t/ | T. |
| /β/ | V. |
| /βʷ/ | Vu or w. |
Pronouns and person markers
In Tamambo, personal pronouns distinguish between first, second, and third person. There is an inclusive and exclusive marking on the first-person plural and gender is not marked. There are four classes of pronouns, which is not uncommon in other Austronesian languages:[5]
- Independent pronouns
- Subject pronouns
- Object pronouns
- Possessive pronouns.
| Independent pronouns | Subject pronouns | Object pronouns | Possessive pronouns | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1SG | iau | ku | -(i)au | -ku |
| 2SG | niho | o | -ho | -m |
| 3SG | nia | mo (realis) / a (irrealis) | -a / -e | -na |
| 1PL.I | hinda | ka | -nda | -nda |
| 1PL.E | kamam | ka | kamam | -mam |
| 2PL | kamim | no | kamim | -mim |
| 3PL | nira | na | -ra | -ra |
Independent pronouns
Independent pronouns behave grammatically similarly to other NPs in that they can occur in the same slot as a subject NP, functioning as the head of a NP. However, in regular discourse, they are not used a great deal due the obligatory nature of cross-referencing subject pronouns. Use of independent pronouns is often seen as unnecessary and unusual except in the following situations:
- Indicate person and number of conjoint NP
- Introduce new referent
- Reintroduce referent
- Emphasise participation of known referent
Indicating person and number of conjoint NP
In the instance where two NPs are joined as a single subject, the independent pronoun reflects the number of the conjoint NP:
Ku vano. 1SG go 'I went.'
and
Nancy mo vano. Nancy 3SG go 'Nancy went.'
Thus, merging the two above clauses into one, the independent pronoun must change to reflect total number of subjects:
Kamam mai Nancy ka vano. IP:1PL.E PREP Nancy 1PL go 'Nancy and I went.'[7]
Introducing a new referent
When a new referent is introduced into the discourse, the independent pronoun is used. In this case, kamam:
Ne kamam mwende talom, kamam ka-le loli na hinau niaro. But IP:1PL.E particular.one first IP:1PL.E 1PL-TA do ART thing EMPH 'But we who came first, [well] as for us, we do this very thing'[8]
Reintroduction of referent
In this example, the IP hinda in the second sentence is used to refer back to tahasi in the first sentence.
Ka tau tahasi mo sahe, le hani. Hani hinda ka-le biri~mbiri. 1PL put.in.place stone 3SG go.up TA burn burn IP:1PL.I 1PL-TA RED~grate 'We put the stones up (on the fire) and it's burning. While it's burning we do the grating [of the yams].'[9]
Emphasis on participation of known subject
According to Jauncey,[10] this is the most common use of the IP. Comparing the two examples, the latter placing the emphasis on the subject:
O vano? 2SG go 'Are you going?'
and
Niho o vano? IP:2SG 2SG go 'Are you going?'[11]
Subject pronouns
Subject pronouns are an obligatory component of a verbal phrase, indicating the person and number of the NP. They can either co-occur with the NP or independent in the subject slot, or exist without if the subject has been deleted through ellipsis or previously known context.
Balosuro mo-te sohena. nowadays 3SG-NEG the.same 'It's not like that nowadays.'[12]
Object pronouns
Object pronouns are very similar looking to independent pronouns, appearing to be abbreviations of the independent pronoun as seen in the pronoun paradigm above. Object pronouns behave similarly to the object NP, occurring in the same syntactic slot, however only one or the other is used, both cannot be used simultaneously as an object argument – which is unusual in Oceanic languages as many languages have obligatory object pronominal cross-referencing on the verb agreeing with NP object.
Mo iso ka turu ka vosai-a 3SG finish 1PL stand 1PL cook.in.stones-O:3SG 'Then we bake it in the stones.'[13]
Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns substitute for NP possessor, suffixing to the possessed noun in direct possessive constructions or to one the four possessive classifiers in indirect constructions.
Direct possession
Tama-k' mo vora bosinjivo. Father-POSS:1SG 3SG be.born bosinjivo.area 'My father was born in the Bisinjivo area.'[14]
Indirect possession
ma-m ti CLFR-POSS:2SG tea 'your tea'[15]
Negation
Negation in Tamambo involves the use of a negative particle; negative verb and negative aspectuals (semantics of time) to change positive constructions into negative ones.
Negation and the VP
The negative particle -te and negative aspectual tele ‘not yet’ and lete ‘never’ can appear in the same slot of the Verb Phrase, illustrated below:
| Obligatory (bolded) and optional components of a VP in Tamambo[16] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Subject Pronoun | 2 Modality markers of
Realis mo FUT -mbo |
3 Aspectual
ta |
4 Aspectuals
le male Negative -te Negative Aspectuals tele lete
|
5 Manner modifiers | 6 Head | 7 Manner modifiers
Directionals Non-resultative modifiers |
Both the negative aspectuals appear to be derived from the tense-aspect marker le and the negative particle -te [17]. All the optional modifiers in the VP are mutually exclusive thus; the negative morphemes allow no modifiers between them and the head of the VP.[18]
Negative particle -te
The negative particle -te which expresses negative polarity on the verb[19] is a bound morpheme, meaning it must be attached to the subject pronominal clitic. The negative particle also occurs immediately before the verb noted in example [105].[20] Furthermore, example [105] demonstrates what Jauncey[21] terms a ‘negative progressive’; a way of expressing the negative in the present tense such as ‘he’s not doing it’ using the negative particle -te.
| Mo-te | loli-a |
| 3SG-NEG | do-O:3SG |
| 'He didn't do it'./ 'He's not doing it.' [105] | |
Negative aspectuals
The negative aspectuals are used to refer to different aspects of time. The aspectual lete ‘never’ is used to refer to event times that are prior to speech time noted in example [107] and [100].[22]
| Mo | lete | loli-a. |
| 3SG | never | do-O:3SG |
| 'He's never done it.' [107] | ||
| Na | lete | skul. |
| 3PL | never | school |
| 'They never went to church.' [100] | ||
The negative aspectual tele ‘not yet’ is used only where the events are referring to an event time prior to or simultaneous with speech time noted in example [106] and [103][20].
| Mo | tele | loli-a. |
| 3SG | not.yet | do-O:3SG |
| 'He's not yet done it'. [106] | ||
| Mo-iso | na-le | ovi, | na-natu-ra | na | tele | suiha... |
| 3SG-finish | 3PL-TA | live | PL-child-P:3PL | 3PL | not.yet | strong |
| 'So then they were living there, (but) their children were not yet strong...' [103] | ||||||
Negation and modality
In Tamambo, modality can be expressed through the future marker –mbo and the two 3SG subject pronouns, mo (realis) and a (irrealis). In Tamambo realis is ‘the grammatical or lexical marking of an event time or situation that has happened (or not) or is happening (or not) relative to speech time’ and irrealis refers to ‘the grammatical or lexical marking of an event time or situation that may have happened, or that may or may not happen in the future’.[23] In Tamambo, the negative particle -te and aspectual lete can be used in conjunction with the 3SG irrealis a to express that a situation or action is not known to have happened. This is used because the negative markers cannot occur next to the future marker –mbo, however they can occur separately in the same construction evident in example [101][24] containing lete.
| Mo | matahu | matan | taura-na | a-te | mai. |
| 3SG | frightened | SUB | uncle-P:3SG | 3SG-NEG | come |
| 'He is afraid that his uncle might not come.' [97] | |||||
| Ne | are | sohen | a | lete | lai | na | manji, | a-mbo | turu | aie | a | hisi | a | mate... |
| but | if | like | 3SG | never | take | ART | animal, | 3SG-FUT | stand | there | 3SG | touch | 3SG | die |
| 'But if it was such that he never caught any fish, he would stand there until he died...' [101] | ||||||||||||||
In Tamambo, only the 3SG preverbal subject form has a irrealis, thus when -te is used with other preverbal subject pronouns, the time of event can be ambiguous, and phrases must be understood from context and other lexemes.[25] For example, [98][25] illustrates the various interpretations one phrase may have.
| Mo | matahu | matan | bula-na | dam | na-te | sula |
| 3SG | frightened | SUB | CLFR-P:3SG | yam | 3PL-NEG | grow |
| 'S/he is/was afraid that her yams didn't grow/are not growing/won't grow/mightn't grow.' [98] | ||||||
Negative verb tete
The negative verb tete is a part of Tamambo's closed subset of intransitive verbs, meaning that it has grammatical limitations. For example, the verb tete can only be used in conjunction with the 3SG preverbal subject pronominal clitic. The negative verb tete can function with a valency of zero or one.[26] Valency refers to the number of syntactic arguments a verb can have.
Zero Valency
The most common use of the verb tete is illustrated in example [59][26], where the verb has zero valency.
| Mo | tete. |
| 3SG | negative |
| 'No.' [59] | |
The 3SG pronoun's of a (irrealis) and mo (realis) are used in conjunction with tete to respond to varying questions depending on whether the answer is certain or not. Example [60][26] illustrates the use of a and tete in a construction to answer a question where the answer is not certain.
| A | kiri? | A | tete. | |
| 3SG.IRR | rain | 3SG.IRR | negative | |
| 'Will it/might it rain?' [60] | 'No.' [60] | |||
However, if the answer is certain than mo and tete are used highlighted in example [61][26].
| O-mbo | vano | ana | maket | avuho? | Mo | tete. | |
| 2SG.FUT | go | PREP | market | tomorrow | 3SG | negative | |
| 'Are you going to the market tomorrow?' [61] | 'No.' [61] | ||||||
Valency of one
If tete functions with a valency of one, then the intransitive subject must precede the verb similar to a prototypical verb phrase. In this situation, 3SG marking can only represent both the singular and plural, highlighted in example [65][27].
| Tuai, | bisuroi | mo | tete. |
| long.ago | bisuroi.yam | 3SG | negative |
| 'Long ago, there were no bisuroi yams.' [65] | |||
Tete can also function with an ‘existential meaning’ illustrated in example [62][26], to express there was ‘no one/no people’.
| Tuai, | Natamabo, | mo | tete | tamalohi... |
| long.ago | Malo | 3SG | negative | person |
| 'Long ago, on Malo, there were no people...' [62] | ||||
Ambient serial verb constructions
The negative verb tete can also be used following a verb in an ambient serial verb construction. In Tamambo, a serial verb construction is defined by Jauncey[28] as ‘a sequence of two or more verbs that combine to function as a single predicate’. Furthermore, the term ambient in this verb construction refers to the phenomena when a verb, which follows a transitive or intransitive verb, makes a predication concerning the previous event rather than the participant.[29] When the negative tete verb is used in an ambient serial verb construction, tete makes a negative predication regarding the event expressed by the previous verb highlighted in example [64] and [65].[30] Furthermore, in this instance it is ungrammatical to insert other words between the negative verb and the previous verb.
| Tama-na | mo | viti-a | mo | re | "Tamalohi | na | dami-h | mo | tete" |
| Father-P:3SG | 3SG | speak-O:3SG | 3SG | say | person | 3PL | ask-O:2SG | 3SG | negative |
| 'Her father spoke to her and said "Men ask for you to no avail." [64] | |||||||||
| ...ka-te | soari-a, | ka | sai-a | mo | tete |
| 1PL-NEG | see-O:3SG | 1PL | search-O:3SG | 3SG | negative |
| '...we didn't see it, we looked for it (but) there was nothing.' [65] | |||||
Negation and realis conditional sentences
Negative realis conditional sentences express an idea that something will happen if the condition is not met, such as an imperative or warning. The sentence outlines the conditions, and includes an ‘otherwise’ or ‘if not’ component.[31] The condition and the ‘if not’ (bolded) component occur together before the main clause illustrated in example [124][31].
| Balosuro | ku | vuro-ho | hina | hamba-ku | niani | o | laia-a, | ro | o | lai-a | ale | a-tete-ro | o | mate! |
| present.time | 1SG | fight-O:2SG | PREP | wing-P:1SG | this | 2SG | take-O:3SG | thus | 2SG | take-O:3SG | if | 3SG-negative-thus | 2SG | die |
| '(So) now I'm going to fight you with these wings of mine and you defend yourself, so you defend yourself and if not then you're dead!' [124] | ||||||||||||||
Abbreviations
1,2,3 first, second, third person
ART article
CLFR classifier
FUT future
IRR irrealis
NEG negative particle
O object pronoun
P possessive pronominal
PL plural
PREP preposition
SG singular
SUB subject
TA tense-aspect marker
External links
- Materials on Malo are included in the open access Arthur Capell collections (AC1 and AC2) held by Paradisec.
References
- ^ a b Malo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ a b "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: mla". ISO 639-3 Registration Authority - SIL International. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
Name: Malo
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Glottologwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Riehl & Jauncey (2005:256)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:87)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:88)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:89)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:89)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:90)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:90)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:91)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:435)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:430)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:434)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:102)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:323)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:323)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:261)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:104)
- ^ a b Jauncey (2011:324)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:262)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:323)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:297)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:263, 323)
- ^ a b Jauncey (2011:263)
- ^ a b c d e Jauncey (2011:254)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:255)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:325)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:341)
- ^ Jauncey (2011:343)
- ^ a b Jauncey (2011:416)
Bibliography
- Jauncey, Dorothy G. (1997). A Grammar of Tamambo, the Language of Western Malo, Vanuatu (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). Australian National University. doi:10.25911/5D666220A63B3. hdl:1885/145981.
{{cite thesis}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Jauncey, Dorothy G. (2002). "Tamambo". In Lynch, J.; Ross, M.; Crowley, T. (eds.). The Oceanic Languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. pp. 608–625.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Jauncey, Dorothy G. (2011). Tamambo: the Language of Western Malo, Vanuatu (PDF). Pacific Linguistics 622. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. hdl:1885/29991. ISBN 9780858836334.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Riehl, Anastasia K.; Jauncey, Dorothy (2005). "Illustrations of the IPA: Tamambo". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 35 (2): 255–259. doi:10.1017/S0025100305002197.
{{cite journal}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)