Vaeakau-Taumako language

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.

Vaeakau-Taumako
Pileni
Region	Reef Islands and Taumako, Solomon Islands
Native speakers	1,700 (1999)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Polynesian Futunic ? Vaeakau-Taumako
Language codes
ISO 639-3	piv
Glottolog	pile1238[2]

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.

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.[3]

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.[GVT 1]

	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.[GVT 1]

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.[GVT 2]

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.[GVT 3]

		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.[GVT 4]

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.[GVT 5]

		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.[GVT 6]

		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.[GVT 7]

	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.[GVT 8]

	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.[GVT 9]

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.[GVT 10]

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.[GVT 10]

O-possessives

Relationships that are outside of the possessor's personal control, such as body parts and kinship relationships are marked with o-possessives.[GVT 10]

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.[GVT 11]

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.[GVT 12] 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.[GVT 11]

		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.[GVT 13]

	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.[GVT 14] 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.[GVT 15] Nouns other than those previously mentioned do not take possessive suffixes, but instead combine with possessive pronouns.[GVT 16]

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.[GVT 17] However, there are instances of their taking complement clauses and for this reason negation morphemes might be considered a sub-class of verb.[GVT 18]

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.[GVT 19]

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.[GVT 19]

1.1

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

Auā tau hano!

‘Don’t go.’ [GVT 19]

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).[GVT 19] A correlation exists between singular 2nd person subject and a nominalised clause although this correlation is not absolute.[GVT 20]

1.1 a

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

Auā ko no hualonga!

‘Don’t make noise!’[GVT 21]

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!’ [GVT 21]

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.’[GVT 20]

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.’ [GVT 20]

Auā is also found in conjunction with modifiers such as ala which marks a hypothetical or oki, ‘back, again’. [GVT 19]

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.’ [GVT 19]

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.’[GVT 20]

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!’ [GVT 21]

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.’[GVT 21]

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.[GVT 22]

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!’[GVT 22]

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.[GVT 23]

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.’[GVT 23]

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’.[GVT 23]

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.’[GVT 24]

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.’[GVT 25]

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.’[GVT 26]

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.[GVT 27]

2.1.2

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

A Osil hikiai ne ala.

‘Åshild is not yet up.’[GVT 27]

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.[GVT 28]

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.’ [GVT 28]

As with siai hiekhī appears in conjunction with complementiser po, although with lower frequency.[GVT 28]

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.’[GVT 28]

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.’[GVT 29]

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.[GVT 30]

Simple interrogative formed with declarative clause:

3.1

tha=ka	ō	mua?
1DU.INCL=FUT	go.PL	just

Thaka ō mua?

‘Shall we go?’[GVT 30]

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?’ [GVT 31]

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.’[GVT 30]

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.[GVT 32]

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.’ [GVT 33]

References

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

1. p.28
2. p.34-35
3. p.36
4. p.98
5. p.99-100
6. p.103-104
7. p.105
8. p.106
9. p.106-107
10. p.109
11. p.111
12. p.112
13. p.115
14. p.147
15. p.148
16. p.149.
17. p.397.
18. p.385.
19. p.386.
20. p.387.
21. p.388.
22. p.389.
23. p.390.
24. p.391.
25. p.392.
26. p.393.
27. p.394.
28. p.395.
29. p.396.
30. p.398.
31. p.399.
32. p.166.
33. p.167.

• Other sources

1. Vaeakau-Taumako at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Vaeakau-Taumako". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database

External links

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