Tawala language

Tawala is an Oceanic language of the Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by 20,000 people who live in hamlets and small villages on the East Cape peninsula, on the shores of Milne Bay and on areas of the islands of Sideia and Basilaki. There are approximately 40 main centres of population each speaking the same dialect, although through the process of colonisation some centres have gained more prominence than others.[3]

"Tavara language" redirects here. For Tavara dialect, see Shona language.
Tawala
Kehelala
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMilne Bay Province
Native speakers
20,000 (2000 census)[1]
Austronesian
Language codes
ISO 639-3tbo
Glottologtawa1275[2]

Phonology

Tawala has a moderately small consonant inventory of 15 consonants, an average vowel quality inventory of five vowels, and an also average consonant-vowel ratio of 3.[4]

Consonants
LabialAlveolarRetroflexVelarGlottal
Plosive p  bt  dk  ɡɁ
Labialised Plosive pw  bwkw  ɡw
Nasal mn
Labialised Nasal mw
Fricative sh
Approximant jlɰ

Vowels
FrontCentralBack
Close iu
Mid eo
Open a

Syntax

Negation

In Tawala, negation is most commonly shown through the negative particle ega, which always appears before the predicate of a clause[7]. When the initial vowel is lengthened, forming eega, the negative particle is taken as the predicate of an existential clause[8], or as an interjection/response to indicate ‘no’[9].

Ex. (1) Negation using ega[10]

(1) ega a tano po puwaka
NEG POSS.3SG garden and pigs
"He has no garden or pigs."

Ex. (2) Negative existential predicate, eega[8]

(2) Eega
NEG
"(it is) not (so)."

Ex. (3) Negative response, eega[9]

(3) eega
NEG
"No."

The negative particle can also take the future tense marker apo as a prefix to form a negative adverb apega. This construction combines with the irrealis and potential mood across both verbal and non-verbal clauses[7].

Ex. (4) Negative non-verbal clause in irrealis mood[11]

(4) apega gadiwewe
FUT.NEG rain
"(it will) not rain."

Ex. (5) Negative verbal clause in irrealis mood[7]

(5) apega toleha-na a-ta-dewa-ya
FUT.NEG feast-DEF 1SG-IRR-make-3SG
"I will not provide the feast."

Intensified negation

Negation can be intensified by adopting the condition marker wai- as a suffix to the negative particle ega[12]; However this construction appears to be limited to the use of response or interjection[9].

Ex. (6) Intensified negation[9]

(6) ega wai
NEG CON
"no way/definitely not."

Negation of non-verbal clauses

As Tawala allows for both verbal and non-verbal clauses, the negative particle will never occur within a clause level noun phrase[10]. For example, if the negative particle were placed between a noun and an adjective, then both would be considered constituents of the clause, with the adjective fulfilling the function of the predicate. The following example illustrates this kind of construction.

Ex. (7) Negation of descriptive clause [10]

(7) bada ega dewadewa-na
man NEG good-3SG
"the man is not good."
Negation of non-verbal clauses: Existential clauses

Existential clauses are common non-verbal clauses which occur within spoken Tawala, though they only occasionally occur within extended discourse. In Tawala, an existential clause consists of a nominal predicate and can often be negated by the addition of the negative particle that precedes the predicate[8].

Ex. (8) Negation of existential clause[8]

(8) ega wipoya po ega wayau
NEG hot and NEG cold
"(it is) not hot and (it is) not cold."

Most negative existential clauses cannot be made positive by simply removing the negative particle, a stative clause would be required instead[8]. The below example illustrates this asymmetry. Ex. (9) Asymmetry of positive and negative existential clauses[8]

(9) ega wipoya > I-wipoya/*wipoya
NEG hot 3SG-hot
"(it is) not hot." "(it is) hot."

Negative existential clauses are constructed in the irrealis mood when the negative adverb precedes the existential nominal predicate[11], as shown in example (4).

As mentioned earlier, the negative particle can be taken as the predicate of an existential clause. This construction is used when asking polar questions[13]. The second clause in the following example illustrates its use.

Ex. (10) Negative existential predicate in polar question[13]

(10) he-ne-nei imahi bo eega?
3PL.PRES-DUR-come properly or NEG
"Are they coming properly or not?"
Negation of non-verbal clauses: Descriptive clauses

Descriptive non-verbal clauses, where an adjective acts as the predicate of the clause, are not often constructed in the negative. In the instances where this does occur, it implies that the negative condition is permanent[14].

Ex. (11) Negation of descriptive clause[14]

(11) gamogamo ega lupalupa-na
animal NEG flying-3SG
"The animal does not fly."
Negation of non-verbal clauses: Possessive clauses

As Tawala always places the negative before the predicate and never within a noun phrase, if a negative particle is found between two nouns, it indicates a possessive clause[15]. Compare the example below, which combines an equative and possessive clause.

Ex. (12) Negation of possessive clause[16]

(12) ega Limi natu-na babana Limi ega natu-na
NEG Limi child-3SG because Limi NEG child-3SG
"(That) is not Limi's child because Limi has no child."

Negation of verbal clauses

Negation of verbal clauses in Tawala follow the same rules applied to non-verbal clauses: for clauses in the past or present tense, the negative particle precedes the predicate, while the negative tense adverb precedes the predicate for clauses in the future tense. These clauses will either carry the irrealis, potential or hypothetical mood[17][18].

Ex. (13) Negative durative irrealis[19]

(13) ega lawa i-ta-hagu-hagu-hi
NEG person 3SG-IRR-DUR-help-3PL
"He doesn't help people."

Ex. (14) Past irrealis[17]

(14) ega wam i-ta-nei
NEG boat 3SG-IRR-come
"The boat didn't come."

Ex. (15) Hypothetical[18]

(15) inapa ega u-na-ne-nae apo hi-na-pani-m
HYP NEG 2SG-POT-DUR-go FUT 3PL-POT-tie-2SG
"If you don't go they will imprison you."

Ex. (16) Negative durative potential[18]

(16) ega u-na-tu-tou
NEG 2SG-POT-DUR-cry
"You don't need to cry."

Ex. (17) Future potential[18]

(17) apega hi-na-nei
FUT.NEG 3PL-POT-come
"They won't come."
Negation of verbal clauses: Prohibitions

Prohibitive constructions within Tawala are constructed by placing the negative tense adverb before a verbal predicate[18], as illustrated in the example below.

Ex (18). Prohibitive command[18]

(18) apega u-na-nae
FUT.NEG 2SG-POT-go
"You must not go."

Morphology

Pronouns

Tawala distinguishes three persons: first, second and third. There are only two grammatical numbers, singular and plural although first person plural makes a distinction between inclusive and exclusive.[20]
Although there are five classes of pronouns in Tawala only the independent pronouns class should be considered as pronouns proper as they are the only class consisting of free forms. The remaining four classes occur with independent pronouns in a phrase.<refEzard (1997), p. 72</ref>

Independent Pronouns
PersonNumber
SingularPlural
1INC tautauta
1EXCL tauyai
2 tamtaumi
3 taunatauhi

Subject Prefix and Object Enclitic

Subject prefixes and object enclitics attach to a verb to mark person and number of both subject and object respectively.

1SG2SG3SG1PL.INC1PL.EXC2PL3PL
Object Enclitic -u/we-m-ni/ya-ta-yai-mi-hi
Subject Prefix a-u-i-ta-to-o-hi-


Example: The following examples demonstrate the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

Tauhihaimaehi-nonogo-ge-ni.
theytheirstay3PL-prepare-TRV-3SG
"They prepared their residence."

Possession

Tawala distinguishes alienable and inalienable possession.

Possessive Pronouns

Alienable possession is constructed by a free-standing possessive pronoun that marks the person and number of the possessor.

PersonNumber
SingularPlural
1INC uata
1EXCL i
2 omomi
3 ahai

Example: The following examples demonstrate the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

Lawahaitanohi-dewa-hi.
personPOSS.3PLgarden3PL-make-3PL
"The people made their gardens."
Pronominal Enclitics

Inalienable possession is constructed by attaching a pronominal enclitic to the possessed noun.

PersonNumber
SingularPlural
1INC -u/we-ta
1EXCL -yai
2 -m-mi
3 -na-hi

Example: The following example demonstrates the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

poloae-na
pigleg-POSS.3SG
"The pig's leg."
gollark: If you're, I don't know, Netflix, then if you can pay a programmer to shave off 5% of your CPU use, you can probably cut down costs 5% too.
gollark: Mostly, but in *some* circumstances performance is more important.
gollark: Palaiologos neural networks doing all programming WHEN?
gollark: If your thing is terribly slow or your application is really widely deployed, then you can afford more programmer time.
gollark: Not *always*.

References
  1. Tawala at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Tawala". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Ezard (1997), p. 6
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-06-12. Retrieved 2010-06-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), chapters 1-3
  5. Ezard (1997), p. 29
  6. Ezard (1997), p. 32
  7. Ezard (1997), p. 79
  8. Ezard (1997), p. 181
  9. Ezard (1997), p. 81
  10. Ezard (1997), p. 205
  11. Ezard (1997), p. 180
  12. Ezard (1997), p. 56
  13. Ezard (1997), p. 251
  14. Ezard (1997), p. 186
  15. Ezard (1997), p. 184
  16. Ezard (1997), p. 185
  17. Ezard (1997), p. 120
  18. Ezard (1997), p. 123
  19. Ezard (1997), p. 121
  20. Ezard (1997), p. 72
  21. Ezard (1997), p. 73
  22. Ezard (1997), p. 73
  23. Ezard (1997), pp. 73-74
  24. Ezard (1997), p. 73

Bibliography
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