Mavea Language

LIG:ligature
IMPF:imperfective
DL:dual
CSTR:
CONS:construct suffix

Mavea (also known as Mav̈ea or Mafea or Mavia) is an Oceanic language spoken on Mavea Island in Vanuatu, off the eastern coast of Espiritu Santo. It belongs to the North–Central Vanuatu linkage of Southern Oceanic. The total population of the island is approximately 172, with only 34 fluent speakers of the Mavea language reported in 2008.Guérin 2008, p. 2

There are 94 languages in the North Vanuatu linkage, including Mavea. The closest linguistic relative to Mavea, sharing a little over 70% of cognates, is Tutuba. Following Tutuba, Aore, South Malok, Araki, and Tangoa are the next closest relatives.

Language endangerment

Mavea is a moribund language and there are many factors as to why this is.

One factor would be the arrival and Christianization by the Seventh-day Adventist and Church of Christ missionaries in 1839. Only 16% of the population can speak Mavea. These native speakers of Mavea belong to Generation 1, 2, and 3 which ranges from the ages of 20–80 years old. Those born after 1980 ("Generation 4") are less fluent. Commonly, this generation is not taught the language, because the language is inactive and not used in any new domain.

Mavea is not used very commonly outside of the home; in particular, it is not used in school, which reduces the younger speakers' exposure to the language. Most speakers do not feel concerned with the possible loss of the Mavea language.

Bislama, the national ''lingua franca'' of Vanuatu, is used more frequently. This creole is the first language for many people in Vanuatu who live in the city. It is used for business, religious sacraments, politics, and is seen as a way to move upward in society.

Phonology

Mavea has 15 consonants and 8 vowels.Cf. Guérin 2011.

Plosives in Mavea are not aspirated.Guérin 2008: p. 12

Orthography

Linguolabial consonants are represented using the corresponding labial consonant with a diaeresis diacritic on top: ''p̈'' ; ''v̈'' ; ''m̈'' .Presentation of Mavea
. The retroflex is represented in the orthography as ''d''.

Grammar

Pronouns

There are both free and bound pronouns. Free pronouns are common in many Pacific languages. These free pronouns do not change for gender, but shows numerical differences, including singular, plural, dual, or paucal.

For example:
* /mo/ = he/she/it (third person singular subject)
* He eats taro. = /mo-an pete/

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns includes personal names, vocatives, relational terms, and locatives. They do not proceed an article and can not be used with a determiner. To show gender distinction, males use the prefix /mol-/. For females, the prefix /vo-/ or /va-/ was added.

Common Nouns

Similar to the proper nouns, there are both bound and free common nouns. Both can be used in an argument, be quantified with a marker, be modified with a determiner, be the head of a relative clause, and be questioned with "who" or "what". Bound common nouns are separated into nouns of kinship, body parts, bodily functions, and whole part relations. Also shows possessives.

Verbs

Verbal predicates are marked with a subject agreement prefix. There are intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, ambitransitive, ditransitive, and auxiliary.

Intransitive verbs are used when the subject has no direct object receiving the action.

Adverbs

There are two kinds of adverbs: phrasal adverbs and sentential adverbs. Sententail adverbs take up the entire sentence and appear after or before the verb's core argument. For example: to show frequency, /te pong/ meaning "sometimes" is used as a sentential adverb.

Spatial adverbs are used to show the location of the speaker and the direction the speaker is speaking towards. For example: ' means "here, at speaker's location." This is common in many Pacific languages.

Reduplication

Mavea shows partial reduplication in its grammar. Reduplication is used to show emphasis. For example: ''sua'' means "to paddle" and ''suosua'' means "to paddle intensely". Sometimes when using reduplication, the vowels can change. Usually the "a" changes to "o" or "e".

Adjectives

Adjectives can only be used as noun modifiers. There both adjectives as independent lexical items and also adjectives pulled from transitive verbs by using reduplication. For example: ' is "paint" and "" means "painted house".

Prepositions

There are seven prepositions in Mavea.

Demonstratives

Pronouns

There are four attested demonstrative pronouns in Mavea: ''aro'', ''nel(e), maro,'' and ''male''. Guérin 2011, p.66. ''Aro'' and ''nel(e)'' can also function as demonstrative determiners, and ''aro'' specifically only rarely appears as a pronoun, as in:

''Maro'' ('this one') is used to refer to something nearby the speaker, and has the plural form ''maror'', which is formed by affixing the plural suffix ''-re'': Guérin 2011, p.67.

''Male'' ('that one') on the other hand is used when speaking of something that is distant to the speaker, both literally, as in

And metaphorically, in order to distance the speaker from the referent, as in

''Malere'' is the plural form of ''male'', and like ''maror'' is formed by affixing the plural ''-re'':

''Maro'' and ''male'' are both formed by combining the complementizer ''ma-'' and a locative adverbial; ''aro'' for the former, and ''ale'' for the latter.

Determiners

In addition to demonstrative pronouns, Mavea also has three demonstrative determiners: ''nele, (a)ro,'' and ''nor(o)'', Guérin 2011, p.152. although of these only ''nor(o)'' is not attested as a pronoun in addition to its role as a demonstrative determiner.

The three-way demonstrative system common to Oceanic Languages is not present in Mavean demonstrative determiners, occurring instead in the locative adverbs of the language. Guérin 2011, p.84. The demonstrative determiners of Mavea encode both spatial and temporal proximity to either the speaker, as in  

or to the discourse, as in

The plural forms ''neler(e), ror,'' and ''noror'' are formed by affixing what is likely a reduced form of the plural word ''re''''.''

''Nele'', along with its plural form ''neler(e),'' is formed in part by the specific definite article ''le''.

''Nor(o)'', and its plural form ''noror'', is actually made up in part by a cut down form of the third demonstrative determiner, ''(a)ro'', while ''nele'' is not. Interestingly, the two demonstrative determiners which contain ''aro'', that is ''nor(o)'' and ''(a)ro'' itself, are also the two demonstrative determiners which serve double duty as demonstrative pronouns, in addition to being used as locational adverbs, a function never assigned to ''nel(e)(re)''.

Additionally, one of the other demonstrative pronouns, ''maro'', also has ''aro'' as one of its constituents.

Demonstrative determiners can refer to a location in both time and space, but the spatial location is often discourse-related, rather than speaker-related, as in the following example, where ''aro'' is used to refer anaphorically to a party (''anana'') that has previously been mentioned in the text:

This use is sometimes called the "tracking use". ''Ror, nor(o)(r)'', and ''nelere'' all also have anaphoric uses, as displayed in the following examples, where the noun phrase referents occurring prior to the demonstrative have each been mentioned previously:

The demonstrative determiners of Mavea follow the head noun when used adnominally, a pattern which is the norm in oceanic languages, though by no means universal. Examples of this include:

Spatial Deictics

Locative adverbs

Locative adverbs are a class of sentential adverb, modifying entire sentences, and as such occur either subsequent to the verb's core argument, Guérin 2011, p.83. as shown in:

Or more rarely prior to the verb's core argument, as shown in:

There are two sets of locative adverbs in Maṽea, all members of which serve as spatial deictics. There is the A-set, so named because all of its members begin with and the K-set, so named because each of its members begins with o They form a six-way system based on proximity to the hearer, and to the speaker, as well as relative direction (up, down, or across)

''Atisi(vo)'', ''atisa,'' and ''atiṽa,'' as well as their K-set equivalents ''konatisi(vo)'', ''konatisa'', and ''konatiṽa'', are likely derived from the form ''atu'' (or ''konatu'' for the K-set), compounded with a movement verb like ''si(vo)'' ('go down'), ''sa'' ('go up'), or ''ṽa'' ('go'):

Speakers can emphasise the distance in the forms ''atisi(vo)'', ''atisa,'' and ''atiṽa,'' as well as their K-set forms ''konatisi(vo)'', ''konatisa'', and ''konatiṽa'' by producing them with a long e.g.: .'t:i.si

There is no easily discernible semantic difference between the A-set and the K-set, however some members of the A-set may also serve as demonstratives, Guérin 2011, p.85. as in:

which is not attested in any member of the K-set.

The spatial and temporal adverbs ''aro'', ''aine,'' and ''kon(a)ro'', as well as the demonstrative determiner ''nor(o),'' can be juxtaposed with a noun in order to form an adverbial predicate, as in

Morphology

Personal pronouns in Mavea do not inflect for case or gender, but do show number (singular, dual, paucal, plural). First person non-singular has an inclusive/exclusive distinction. Independent personal pronouns are not obligatory, but are used for emphasis, contrast or focus.Guérin 2008: p. 76.

Bound Pronouns

Bound pronouns are obligatory at the beginning of a predicate phrase. Only 1SG and 3SG inflect for mood.Guérin 2008: p. 77

Counting System

The Mavea counting system is very similar to other Proto Oceanic languages, especially numbers 1 through 5, and 10.

# tea
# rua
# tol(u)
# vat(i)
# lima
# marava
# rave rua
# rattol(u)
# rappat(i)
# anavul(u)

Possession

Mavea distinguishes direct and indirect possession. Direct possessive constructions nouns take a bound possessive clitic. On the other hand, indirect possession is expressed by the presence of a classifier to which a possessive clitic is suffixed. Guérin 2011, p.168.

Direct possession

Direct possession is expressed by a possessive clitic attached to the noun when the possessor is not expressed as a Noun Phrase (NP). Alternatively, if no suffix exists for the person and number of the possessor, the nouns are followed by an independent pronoun.

The semantic classes of nouns participating in direct possessive constructions, include, body parts, and bodily functions, kinship terms, articles of clothing, and household goods.

A noun, which is directly possessed, takes a possessive clitic matching the possessor's features. Guérin 2011, p.170.

For example:

and

This third person singular possessive clitic, pronounced as a is suffixed to the noun 'Laloa' for 'saliva'.

Non-pronominal possessors

If a full NP expresses the possessor, the possessee takes the construct suffix –n, or can be pronounces a although this construct suffix is a homophony of the possessive clitic –n and –na the distribution is different as displayed in the following examples;

Note that the case of Full NP, the possessee precedes the possessor

''and''

Possession is recursive, in the following example, the noun 'vulu' which is possessed by the noun 'vanatu' which in turn is possessed by John, therefore both nouns a suffixed with –

Indirect possession

Nouns in indirect possession constructions do not take a possessive clitic, they require a classifier to which a possessive clitic (or construct suffix) is attached.

There are six classifiers in Mavea:

# a- 'to be eaten'
# ma- 'to be drunk'
# no- 'general possession, valuables'
# pula- 'anima raised, vegetable planted'
# sa- 'housing and land'
# madoue- 'a dead man's possession' Guérin 2011, p.171.

classifier "a-" infers that the item is possessed is meant to be eaten

If the possessor is a full NP, the classifier is market with the construct -n

Summarised

Guérin 2011, p.176.

Questions

Intonation is used to distinguish yes-no questions because there is no syntactic way to do so. There are also tag questions which uses the negative tag /te modere/ at the end. In English, /te modere/ means "or not".

Some monoclausal content questions include:
* ape = where
* = when
* ise = who
* ivisa = how much/many
* matai = for what reason
* matan = why
* sa = what
* sava = which/what kind?
* se = which
* sur sa = about/for what

Negation

Sentential negation is expressed with the bound prefix /sopo/ and appears right after the subject agreement prefix. The order is subject ---> negation ---> verb.

Sometimes /sopo/ can be shorten to /po/.

When the subject agreement marker is absent, the bare negation marker jumps to the front.

To show the aspectual meaning "not yet", /lo/ is added to the negation marker /sopo/. This refers to events that have not happened yet but are likely to in the future. Added to the end of this form of negation is /pa/ which means "still" or "yet".

When combined with /me/ the negation changes into "not anymore, no more".

Equative clauses are shown by adding the negative marker /sopo/ to the subject marker for third person singular /mo-/. ''Mosopo'' meaning " it is/was/not."

Negative locational predicates are similar to equative clauses, by adding the locational marker /na/ to the equative clause /mosopo/.

Notes

* References from
* Guérin, Valérie (2008). ''Discovering Mavea: Grammar, texts, and lexicon''. Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics, University of Hawai'i.

*

* Other sources

External links

Presentation of Mavea
by Valérie Guérin.

Mavea resources
at the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR)

Mavea-English-Bislama Dictionary

{{Austronesian languages

Espiritu Santo languages
Languages of Vanuatu
Definitely endangered languages