Tangoa language

Tangoa, or Movono, is an Oceanic language or dialect. It is spoken on Tangoa Island off the southern coast of Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu, as well as a few mainland villages opposite Tangoa. In 2015 it was estimated to have 370 speakers, while in 2001 it was estimated to have 800.

Tangoa may be endangered, with its status described as "shifting". Another source describes language use as vigorous, used among all ages in all domains, although with some code-switching to Bislama.

It has largely displaced the moribund Araki language spoken on Araki Island.

Classification

Tangoa is generally described as a language, but also as a dialect of the proposed, lexicostastically defined Southwest Santo language along with Araki, Akei, and Wailapa.However, Tangoans generally do not understand Araki, which suggests they are not both dialects of a single language.

History

The first Christian missionaries settled on Tangoa in 1887 and founded the Tangoa Training Institute (in the 1970s it became the Presbyterian Bible College and later the Talua Ministry Centre), with the aim of training Bible teachers and priests; it still has a large influence on social life in the area. Tangoa was chosen as a local lingua franca for missionary purposes; it was used in church, education and for inter-island communication.

It is suggested that the activities of the missionaries, especially the Bible translations into Tangoa, contributed to the decline of the Araki language, which is now moribund.

Phonology

Consonants

The following table shows Tangoa's consonantal phonemes:

* /ts/ is a backed alveolar grooved affricate, and has a backed variant before back vowels.
* /s/ is a alveolar grooved fricative.
* /x/ can be, for some speakers, variously and �word-medially, occurring in free variation.
/m/, /n/ and /Å‹/ may be syllabic. They all may occur as syllables word-medially when preceding another consonant, and /m/ may occur as a syllable word-finally.

Linguolabials

Tangoa formerly had gendered sociolects, with linguolabial use differing between the sexes. Males acquired the women's dialect in early life from their caretakers, but lived in seclusion in all-male company during their initiation period, where they learned how to produce linguolabials. This, in effect reversed the historical collapse of ''*m'' and ''*mÊ·''. The awareness of the pre-merger distinction may have been supported by knowledge of surrounding languages in which the distinction is still preserved.

In the 1950s, at least half of the adult speakers merged the linguolabials with the bilabials; minimal pairs became homophones. Confusion about where linguolabial use was appropriate only occurred in one minimal pair ( "butterfly" and "flame"), but with more frequency among non-contrasting pairs, even among the older men. Most of the older Tangoan men regarded the merging as a recent deterioration in the language, caused by children not being taught to speak correctly. However, there is some evidence the variation was actually a long-standing feature. Usage of the linguolabials was considered prestigious, and many users of these phonemes were sensitive about any suggestion they misused them.

Research published in the 1970s stated that linguolabial phonemes defined the prestige variety. Used by males in oratory, serious discussion, traditional storytelling, etc, but less consistently in ordinary speech, it was generally accepted as "true Tangoa", although women and children were not expected to use them, and rarely did.

Research published in the 1980s stated that linguolabials were in the process of shifting to bilabials.

Vowels

The following table shows Tangoa's vowel phonemes:

The vowels weaken in unstressed syllables.

Ray (1926) gives the diphthongs as ''ai'', ''ao'', ''au'', and ''oi'', in both long and short form (although the phonetic values are unclear). However, later research found these to not be present, although "vowel clusters" do occur. All possible combinations of two vowels occur except /ie/ and /uo/. Out of the possible combinations of three vowels, /iau/, /iua/, /eia/, /eau/, /eua/, /aia/, /aui/, /aua/, /oia/, /oea/, /oau/, /uia/, /uea/ and /uai/ occur, and out of the possible combinations of four vowels, /iuau/, /eiau/, /euau/, /auau/, /aiau/, /oiau/, and /uaia/ occur.

Phoneme distribution

All phonemes can occur word-initially and word-medially (although there is a low incidence of vowel-initial words), but only vowels and the syllabic /m/ occur word-finally.

Stress

Stress is predictable; primary stress occurs on the penultimate syllable, and secondary stress, present in words of more than three syllables, occurs on the first syllable. Light stress occurs on the fourth syllable of seven syllable words, and on the fourth and sixth syllables of eight syllable words.

Grammar

Nouns

A verb or adjective may be used as a noun without change to its form (e.g. "they are speaking", "my speech"), although a verbal noun may be formed by the suffixes or (e.g. "he is sick", "sickness").

When prefixed to an adjective, the word (a shortening of "thing") forms an abstract noun (e.g. "good", "goodness").

Agent nouns are formed using the word "person", with a (either full or partial) reduplicated verb or adjective (e.g. "sinner").

Demonyms are formed by the word , or in the plural (e.g. "Ethiopian"). For women, is used, with no special plural form (e.g. "woman of Samaria).

Nouns do not have number, although the context may show number in a verbal phrase, or the adjective may be used before or after the noun (e.g. "many things").

Tangoa appears to mostly lack grammatical gender, but some nouns denoting relationships are of common gender and use the prefix to indicate feminine sex (e.g. "his child", "his daughter").

Reduplication of the noun intensifies its meaning (e.g. "hill", "mountain").

Pronouns

The following table contains Tangoa's personal pronouns.

The pronouns also occur in shortened forms, used around or affixed to a verb to indicate its subject and object.

Tangoa has a clusivity distinction, a grammatical difference between inclusive and exclusive first person pronouns. The inclusive form is used when including the addressee, whereas the exclusive form excludes them.

A dual or trial pronoun may be formed with or following the pronoun (e.g. "we two", "you three").

The word "self, by one's self, alone, only" functions as an intensive or reflexive pronoun (e.g. "will he kill himself?", "they went away alone", "you only").

The particles "this, these" and "that, those" are demonstrative pronouns, and may either be used independently or follow a noun or pronoun (e.g. "this thing"). These may be combined with the word (of unclear meaning), with the common forms "this" and "that", although is apparently only used when referring to people (e.g. "I write this"). "this" and "that" are also found (e.g. "this is I").

Interrogative pronouns include "who?", "what?", "what is this?", "which?"and "how many?" (used as a verb with the particles or . Indefinite pronouns include "some, any", "something", "none", "a few, a little", "all", "many", "each", "another, something else". "some, a part of", takes a pronominal suffix (e.g. "some of you").

Possession

A noun in the genitive case follows the head noun (i.e. the possessor follows the possessed, e.g. "Joseph's brothers", literally "brothers Joseph's", although such a construction can also form an adjective, e.g. "pig's house" or "fit for a pig").

In regard to possession, there are essentially two classes of noun. Head nouns of the first class are suffixed with if the genitive noun is also of the first class (e.g. "Paul's nephew"). However, if the genitive noun is of the second class, no suffix appears (e.g. "man's son").

Head nouns of the second class are followed by the possessive nouns , , or , which gain the suffix with (e.g. "work of your father"). is sometimes followed by the article (e.g. "rulers of the people").

First class nouns suffix a short form of the pronouns to indicate possession (e.g. "my father", "his eye").

For second class nouns, the shortened pronoun is instead suffixed to the possessive noun, of which there are four: for food, for drink, for animal property, and for property generally (e.g. "my word", "his pigs").

When used without a noun, the possessives are equivalent to the English "mine", "yours", etc (e.g. "all my things are yours, and yours, mine"). Possessives may be used with a verbal phrase (e.g. or "his going").

Verbs

A noun or an adjective may be used as a verb (e.g. "blood", "it bleeds"). Compound verbs are common (e.g. "to understand", literally "hear know").

There are no rules for the formation of a transitive from an intransitive verb; many verbs can be used with either connotation (e.g. "he deceives", "he deceives them". However, in some verbs the final resembles a transitive suffix (e.g. "to give"), although many verbs end in an that does not appear essential to the meaning (e.g. or "to inherit").

Shortened forms of the subject pronouns are used in combination with a verb; these forms differ in the indicative and subjunctive moods (the table below shows the indicative forms), and in some cases are followed by a particle. Some examples of usage include "you love me" and "he told him".

In the third person singular, the verbal particle is used instead of a pronoun. This particle is not used with the other pronouns.

When the subject is a noun, it is usually followed by one of these pronouns (e.g. "his brothers (they) told him", "that woman said to him").

To form the future tense, the particle ( after ) follows the pronoun. is also used instead of ; the other pronouns also have forms for the future tense but their use is inconsistent. See the table below (these pronouns are also supposedly used for the imperative and subjunctive):

Note that does not follow , and is not always used for the future (e.g. "while they were walking").

Aspect and mood

The suffix may indicate reflexivity or reciprocity (e.g. "he bites", "he bites himself, it pains him"). An alternative way to express reciprocity is by the verb's subject and object being identical, or with the word (see above). Another suffix is of unclear meaning (e.g. "to hurt", from "to do" and "bad").

The imperative mood is shown by the pronouns (for a singular referent) or (for a plural referent) preceding the verb (e.g. "come!"). follows the pronoun in the negative (e.g. "fear not!").

The particle (sometimes or ) indicates the continuous aspect (e.g. "I am talking").

The verb "to finish" indicates completion of an action and is placed after the verbal phrase "they had finished praying".

To negate the verb, the word is placed after the pronoun (e.g. "fear not").

Other verbal constructions

or the verb , "to do, make" are used as causatives; the latter form may be followed by a subjunctive phrase, but either form may be prefixed to the verb (e.g. "to eat", "to feed").

The word preceding the verb emphasizes it (e.g. "pigs naturally bite"). Verbs can be reduplicated to express the frequency of an action, and this is used especially with a plural subject (e.g. "they say among themselves").

The verb expresses ability or inability (e.g. "he could not see", or alternatively the adjective is used). The verb indicates unwillingness, whereas indicates a wish.

There is no copula, although the verb is used to mean "to exist" or "to be in" (e.g. "no-one was in it").

Adjectives

Adjectives follow their noun (e.g. "blind man").

Certain adjectives are formed by combining a verb with the prefix (e.g. "to tear, break", "broken"). The suffix , added to verbs and adjectives, seems to give an abstract meaning (e.g. "it bleeds", "it is rusty"). Many adjectives appear to be reduplicated (e.g. "naked", "false").

In comparisons, two positive statements are used. The preposition (variously meaning "of", "from", etc) may be used for "than" (e.g. "this is better than that". Superlatives are indicated by "very", "to pass", or "to go" (e.g. "it is the best").

Adverbs

The verbs "to go", "to come" and can be combined with other verbs to become directive adverbs meaning respectively "forth", "hither" and "up" (e.g. "they carried him forth").

Interrogative adverbs include "where?" (e.g. "where is he?", "you have laid him where?"), "how?" (a verb, e.g. "how do you know me?", literally "you know how me?"), "why?" (e.g. "why have you come?"), and "for what, why" (e.g. "why do you talk with her?").

Adverbs of time include "now, today", "sometime, anytime, when", "at that time, then, when", "formerly", "yesterday", "until now", "always", "by day", "by night", "at once, immediately", "a little while", "a long time" (from the verb "to continue"), "day break" (literally "it days"), "the next day", "early in the morning", "tomorrow", "early", "each day, every day", "in the evening", "at night", "after that", "long ago, of old". Examples of usage include "he shall never thirst".

Adverbs of place include "here", "there", "that place, where", "near", "far", "to the sea, seaward", "to the land, landward", "toward shore", "on shore", "on the sea", "over, beyond the sea". Examples of usage include "you come here", "much water (was) there", "they saw the place where he lay there".

Adverbs of manner include "thus", "quickly", "openly", "plainly", and "secretly".

and mean "yes" and "no" respectively. can also mean "no" or "not".

Prepositions

Simple prepositions, seemingly not derived from a noun or verb, include the locatives (e.g. "he sat in the house") and (e.g. "he came to the earth"). can also be used as an instrumental (e.g. "she wiped his feet with her hair"). Other simple prepositions are , indicating motion to something or "beside, from" (e.g. "he stood by me", "they take it from me", "I sent them to you"), , indicating general relation or something belonging to a place (e.g. "a man belonging to Tangoa", "language of Tangoa"), , a causal preposition translating as "for, because" (e.g. "pray to the Lord for me", "because it rained"), , a causal or instrumental preposition translating as "through, by" or meaning "about" (e.g. "he shall live through me", "he told us something bad about you"; this becomes before a noun e.g. "he spoke about John"), and "after" (e.g. "after these things"). and are occasionally equivalent to possessives.

The prepositions mentioned above are sometimes combined with nouns to form a new preposition. These nouns include "inside, in, within" (e.g. "within the house"), "before" (also meaning "face", e.g. "before you"), "below" (also meaning "earth", e.g. "you are from beneath"), "under" (e.g. "under the fig tree"), "above" (also meaning "top", e.g. "I am from above"), "on top, on" (e.g. "he walked on the sea"), "between, among" (e.g. "in the middle of the place"), and "beyond, on the other side of" (e.g. "they went over the sea").

Additionally, certain verbs can be used as prepositions: for example, "before" (e.g. "he was before me"), "after" (also meaning "to follow", e.g. "it comes after me"), "against" (e.g. "they opposed him"), and "round about" (e.g. "they stood round him").

Conjunctions

There is no simple copulative conjunction, although sometimes ordinal numerals are used. Tangoa also lacks a personal conjunction (e.g. "John (and) I (we) went (to) Tangoa", "he and his wife", literally "his wife they two").

means "likewise, also" and is used at the end of a sentence. means "or" (e.g. "men or women") and can also be used at the end of a phrase interrogatively. means "because, on account of" (e.g. "pray to the Lord for me").

Sentence structure

Interrogative clauses are shown by interrogative pronouns or adverbs, or by the particle at the end of the sentence (e.g. "are you a man of Tangoa?").

Dependent clauses are shown by the word introducing the clause and the future forms of the pronouns (e.g. "he asked him to come down").

Conditionality is shown by the juxtaposition of two statements (e.g. "(if) he sleep, he shall be well"); there is no equivalent of the English "if".

Numbers

Cardinal numerals follow the noun and take the verbal particle , or occasionally another particle .

, "one", is commonly used as an indefinite article, particularly in its verbal form (e.g. "a man").

is ten; to make tens above the first, is dropped and a number added to the end (e.g. "twenty", "thirty" but "fifty").

The existence of an ordinal is unclear, although sometimes the suffix seems to be in use, as in surrounding languages (e.g. "the third day", but "on the eighth day"). Multiplicatives are formed with the causative prefix (e.g. "once", "twice").

Selected vocabulary

The list below is a selected sample of words in Tangoa.

Interjections include (indicating a vocative), , (both calling attention), (showing wonder e.g. "what a great rain!"), "indeed", and "truly, yes".

References

{{Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages

Espiritu Santo languages
Languages of Vanuatu