Maskelynes (), or Kuliviu (Uliveo), is an

Oceanic language The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...

spoken on the Maskelyne Islands off south Malekula,

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

Phonology

Consonants

* are in

free variation In linguistics, free variation is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers. Sociolinguists argue that describing such ...

as unreleased or unvoiced word-finally or before a consonant ** is also in free variation as

nasal Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination: * With reference to the human nose: ** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery ** ...

word-finally, especially among young speakers * is realized as a voiceless among some speakers, especially young * are unreleased word-finally or before a consonant (though has never been recorded before a consonant) * lose their labialization word-finally when not followed by a vowel and before ** is in free variation as trilled (tapped in Peskarus) before and sometimes before * is before voiced consonants * are [] before voiceless consonants and word-finally * is in free variation with for some speakers * are vocalic when in Syllable nucleus, nucleus following

Vowels

* is near-close between front consonants * is Close-mid vowel, close-mid word-finally * is after labiovelarized consonants or before * are realised as single morphemes, * is realised as front between front consonants, and near-close when proceeded or preceded by back consonants * is front between front consonants

Voiceless vowel

A voiceless occurs at the ends of words. It is uncertain if it is an

allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...

of or a separate phoneme

Phonotactics

Possible syllable structures in Maskelynes: (C/S)V(S)(C)

Letter-to-phoneme correspondence

Grammar

Verbs

The verbs of Maskelynes are

agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...

, mostly being modified by

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particu ...

es, though the stem of a verb can stand on its own. These prefixes encode for, in order of appearance in verb: 1. tense-aspect-modes; 2. subject, person and number; 3. various modes, including

realis A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mo ...

and

irrealis In linguistics, irrealis moods (abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods. Every ...

; 4. two tense-modes; 5. reduplication. The object of a sentence is encoded by a suffix. Examples of verbal agglutination:

Reduplication

Reduplication in Maskelynes has various usages, and can encode for e.g.

plurality Plurality may refer to: Voting * Plurality (voting), or relative majority, when a given candidate receives more votes than any other but still fewer than half of the total ** Plurality voting, system in which each voter votes for one candidate and ...

, habituality, iterative aspect, etc.

External links

Resources in and about the Maskelynes language
at OLAC *

Paradisec The Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) is a cross-institutional project that supports work on endangered languages and cultures of the Pacific and the region around Australia. They digitise reel- ...

ha
a number of collections that include Maskelynes language materials

at

Omniglot Omniglot () is an online encyclopedia focused on languages and writing systems. Etymology The name "Omniglot" comes from the Latin prefix ''omnis'' (meaning "all") and the Greek root γλωσσα (''glossa'', meaning "tongue"). History The we ...

References

Bibliography

* Malekula languages Languages of Vanuatu {{SOceanic-lang-stub