Lengo Language

Lengo is a Southeast Solomonic language of Guadalcanal.

Phonology

Vowels

Lengo has 6 vowels.

Vowel sequences occur commonly for all combinations of these vowels, with the exception of . The front open-mid vowel never occurs in sequence.

Consonants

Lengo has 15 consonants.

Voiced stops are prenasalized. Two instances of regional variation in these phonemes have been observed. These are becoming , and becoming .

Morphology

Pronominal systems

Lengo has five sets of pronominal forms. These are emphatic, subject reference, object, direct possessor, and indirect possessor. These distinguish maximally between four persons (first person inclusive and exclusive, second, and third person), and four numbers (singular, plural, dual, and paucal). There is no grammatical gender distinction, but there is an animacy distinction in the object paradigm. Two further uses of these pronominal forms occur - a reflexive pronoun, and a set of interrogative pronouns.

The dual and paucal forms are derived from the plural forms by the addition of ko- and tu- respectively.
The dual forms are used only to indicate 'two and only two', whilst the plural and paucal forms mean 'two or more' and 'three or more' respectively. First person exclusive excludes the addresse(s).

Emphatic pronouns

The emphatic pronoun in Lengo is optional, and can occur in combination with obligatory pronouns that may occur with subject or object function. It can also appear without other pronouns. It is used to emphasize the semantic role of a noun in a clause.

Examples:

Subject reference pronouns

The subject reference pronoun appears as the first element in a verb phrase. It is obligatory in any main clause, but can be excepted in subordinate clauses. It is optional in imperative sentences.

Example:

Object pronouns

The object form in Lengo is identified using a set of pronominal suffixes, which index the object arguments on the verb. In instances where a verb takes both a direct and indirect object, only the indirect object is marked. The third person plural object form is marked for animate or inanimate objects.

Example:

Direct possessor pronouns

The direct possessor form is used for inalienably possessed nouns. It is a suffix on the possessed noun that indicates the possessor. In the case of the dual and paucal forms, number is indicated as a prefix on the noun, and the plural form of the possessive suffix is used.

The third person singular direct possessor appears in two forms, with '-a' being more prevalent than '-na'.

Examples:

Indirect possessor pronouns

The indirect possessor form is used for alienably possessed nouns. It occurs as a free morpheme preceding the possessed noun. There are two categories distinguished - 'oral consumable' and 'general'. The oral consumable category includes items that are able to be eaten, drunk, or consumed via the mouth, such as tobacco.

Oral consumable form:

General form:

Reflexive pronouns

A reflexive pronoun is composed when a direct possessor suffix is added to the stem 'tibo'. This results in a valency decrease of the verb.

Examples:

Interrogative and relative pronouns

Lengo has two pronouns that have interrogative or relative uses. 'thi' is used if the reference is human, and 'tha' if the reference is non-human.

Relative use:

Interrogative use:

Negation

There are several ways to indicate negation in Lengo.

There is the discontinuous morpheme ''mo'' 'NEG', which surrounds the verb being negated. There are three modals which can appear in the serial verb construction and are negative (''teigha''), prohibitive (''tabu'') or non-volitive (''kou''). Lastly, there is the auxiliary ''boro'' 'impossible FUT', which is sometimes glossed as 'NEG' and can negate the verb.

The ''mo ... mo'' 'NEG ... NEG' structure can also be combined with ''teigha'' 'NEG' to create a double negative, which carries the meaning of a strong affirmative.

Discontinuous morpheme ''mo ... mo''

The grammatical negator, the ''mo ... mo'' 'NEG ... NEG' structure, is the only instance of a 'discontinuous' morpheme in Lengo. The morpheme ''mo'' appears both before and after the verb being negated. The basic structure of this construction is ''mo V mo'', as seen in (13) and (14):

A variant of this construction is ''mo ... moa'', as seen in (15).

Note that although all examples presented by Unger show ''mo ... mo'' 'NEG ... NEG' used for a negative imperative, it should not be assumed that this construction is exclusive to a particular sentence structure. More examples are needed for a satisfactory conclusion.

Regardless, ''mo ... mo'' is an uncommon negator in Lengo. Much more frequently used is the modal ''teigha'' 'NEG'.

Modals

Lengo has a 'serial verb construction'. The various types of serial verb construction identified are directional, sequential, causative, manner, ambient, comitative, dative, instrumental and modal. The basic structure of a modal serial verb construction is as follows:

:V + ''na'' V(-O)

The first verb is the modal verb, and the second verb follows an article (always ''na''). This second verb is treated somewhat like an infinitive. Lengo has five modal verbs; of these, three are used to create negative constructions. These three are:

Negative ''teigha''

Of all the ways to express negation in Lengo, the modal ''teigha'' 'NEG' is the most versatile and often used. It can be used to negate verbs in statements, like in (16):

In (17) and (18), ''teigha'' appears at the very beginning of the serial verb construction, and the realis locative ''t-i'' appears between the negator and the article ''na''. The entire serial verb construction is negated by ''teigha''.

Sometimes the construction ''teigha na'' undergoes elision and is shortened to ''tena'', like in (19):

It is important to note that this shortened form ''tena'' 'NEG' should not be confused with ''tena'' 'LOC'. Refer to example (20), which shows both homophones in use: the first being the locative and the second (bolded) being the combined modal and article.

''Teigha'' is flexible and can be used to create negative polar questions and answer polar questions, as in examples (21), (22) and (23).

Example (21) is a negative polar question which can be answered with either ''eo'' 'yes' or ''teigha'' 'no'. Answering with ''eo'' would mean 'yes, I have not seen your basket', whereas answering with ''teigha'' would mean 'no, I have seen it'.

In example (22), ''teigha'' is used to answer a polar question in the negative. In (23), ''teigha'' is modified by an adverbial, ''vata'' 'continue'.

In (24), ''o teigha'' 'or NEG' is added to the end of the sentence to create an alternative question.

A content question can also be answered with ''teigha'', as in (25).

Prohibitive ''tabu''

The word ''tabu'' 'prohibitive (with consequences); forbidden' is another common way of forming a negative. It is often used by parents who are correcting their children. As with ''teigha'' 'no/none', a clause could consist of the single word ''Tabu!'' 'Don't!' The basic structure is the same as with other modals: the first verb is the modal, and it is followed by the article ''na'' and the second verb.

In (26), the consequence of disobeying is explicitly addressed. In (27), the article ''na'' is omitted, and the consequence of 'or else ...' is implied.

Non-volitive ''kou''

The third and last negative modal is ''kou'' 'unwilling', which is used to indicate non-volition. It appears in the same place as ''teigha'' and ''tabu'', but carries a more specific meaning.

In example (28), if the more general ''teigha'' 'NEG' had been used instead of ''kou'', it would simply mean that the fish do not eat the bait. However, in (28), the fish not only ''do'' not eat the bait, but they ''will'' not.

Example (29) has the words ''laka'' 'also' and ''t-i'' 'REAL-LOC' in between the negator and the article ''na''.

Auxiliary ''boro''

In Lengo, tense auxiliaries appear before the subject reference pronoun and verb. There are two tense auxiliaries: ''bo'' 'FUT' and ''boro'' 'impossible FUT'. While ''boro'' is perhaps not a straightforward example of negation, it nevertheless does carry a meaning of 'negation for a reason'. If ''tabu'' is specifically prohibitive and ''kou'' is specifically non-volitive, then ''boro'' can be presented as a negator denoting impossibility. Furthermore, it is sometimes glossed as NEG, as in (30):

Example (31) shows ''boro'' glossed as 'impossible'. However, it still has the effect of negating the verb.

Double negative construction

The modal ''teigha'' 'NEG can be combined with the ''mo ... mo'' 'NEG ... NEG' structure to create a double negative, which carries the meaning of a strong affirmative, as in (32). However, this construction (meaning 'must') is rarely used. Instead, the Pijin form ''masi'' 'must', a borrowing from English, is much more common.

Example (33) shows the same sentence as (32), but without either of the negation structures. This example is a simple imperative.

Abbreviations

The following is a list of all the abbreviations used in this article.

O:object
PS:possessor pronoun / person
EP:emphatic pronoun
LIM:limiter

Citations

References

External links

* Materials on Karnai are included in the open access Arthur Capell collections
AC1
an
AC2
held by Paradisec

{{Austronesian languages

Gela-Guadalcanal languages
Languages of the Solomon Islands