Dakaka

Dakaka, Daakaka
Spoken in	Vanuatu
speaker	about 1000
Linguistic ; classification	Malayo Polynesian Oceanic North-Central Vanuatu Dakaka ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bpa

Language region Daakaka on Ambrym

Dakaka or Daakaka , also known as South Ambrym or Baiap , is an oceanic language spoken by about a thousand speakers in the southwest of the island of Ambrym ( Vanuatu ). Although most children in the area are still learning the language as their first language, the current socio-economic and media changes and the dominance of the official languages Bislama , English and French in schools and in official contexts pose a serious threat to the small language.

Phonology

Consonants

The system of consonant phonemes is quite typical of the region. Voiced plosives are prenasalized.

	Labio- velar	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Unvoiced	pʷ	p	t		k
Voiced	ᵐbʷ	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
nasal	mʷ	m	n		ŋ
Fricative		v	s
Trill			r
Approximant	w			j

Vowels

There are seven phonemically distinctive vowel qualities; there is also the distinction between long and short vowels, as well as a marginal phonemic, short Schwa . The distinction between middle and half-open vowels only plays a role after alveolar consonants, for example in the minimal pair tee [tɛː] "ax" and téé [teː] "see".

	front	central	back
Closed	i , iː		u , uː
medium	e , eː	( ə )	o , oː
half open	ɛ , ɛː		ɔ , ɔː
open		a , aː

Word classes

The four largest word classes are nouns , verbs , adjectives, and adverbs . Only nouns can be in argument positions. Only verbs and some adjectives are used as predicates without a copula . Only adjectives can directly modify a noun as attributes .

noun

Three subgroups can be distinguished within the noun class: The largest subgroup is made up of general nouns such as em "Haus" or myaop "Vulkan". In contrast to the other two classes, these nouns do not necessarily have to indicate a possessor - they can neither be inflected nor can another noun phrase immediately follow them. Inflected nouns, on the other hand, always indicate their possessor with a person-number ending:

kus-uk

Nose.of-1S.POSS

"my nose"

kus-um

Nose.of-2S.POSS

"your nose"

Transitive or relational nouns also obligatorily indicate a possessor, but not with an inflectional ending, but with a subsequent noun. Known, definite, non-human possessors are indicated by the suffix -tye or its allomorph -sye .

bwee	tuwu
Shell. Of	Tuwu nut

"The bowl of the Tuwunut"

bwee-tye

Shell.of-3S (n-hum) .POSS

"His / her (non-human) shell"

Verbs

Within the verb class there are different subgroups, which differ either in terms of their transitivity or in terms of the number of their internal argument (the subject of an intransitive verb or the object of a transitive verb).

Transitivity

There are three levels of transitivity: Verbs can be intransitive , semitransitive or transitive . Intransitive verbs such as oko “go for a walk, be on the move” never take an object. Semitransitive verbs can optionally take an indefinite object, whereas transitive verbs always have a definite object (regardless of whether it is explicitly specified by a noun phrase):

Semitransitive en "eat":				Transitive ane "eat":
ya = m	you	en		ya = m	you	ane
3P = REAL	PROG	eat (SEMTR)		3P = REAL	PROG	eat (TR)
"They eat"				"They eat it "
ya = m	you	en	mesyu	ya = m	you	ane	mesyu
3P = REAL	PROG	eat (SEMTR)	fish	3P = REAL	PROG	eat (TR)	fish
"They eat fish"				"They eat the fish"

Pluralism

While most verbs are neutral to the number of their arguments, some verbs can only take arguments in the singular or only in the plural. All three verbs mur , tesi and medap each mean “to fall”, but only with medap can the subject be both in the singular and in the plural. In contrast, the subject of mur always refers to a single referent , the subject of tesi in turn always refers to a plurality of referents (the examples marked with asterisks in the red cells are ungrammatical):

Singular

Pluractional

Number-neutral

O	swa	must	mur
coconut	a	REAL	fall (SG)

"A coconut fell down"

*	O	swa	ma	tesi
	coconut	a	REAL	fall (N-SG)

intended: "a coconut fell down"

O	swa	ma	medap
coconut	a	REAL	fall

"A coconut fell down"

*	O	mwe	pwis	must	mur
	coconut	REAL	many.be	REAL	fall (SG)

intended: "a lot of coconuts fell down"

O	mwe	pwis	ma	tesi
coconut	REAL	many.be	REAL	fall (N-SG)

"Many coconuts fell down"

O	mwe	pwis	ma	medap
coconut	REAL	many.be	REAL	fall

"Many coconuts fell down"

swell

↑ Unless otherwise noted, all information in this article comes from Prince (2012) .

literature

Kilu by Prince: A Grammar of Daakaka (= Mouton grammar library . Band 67 ). Mouton De Gruyter, Berlin 2015.

[prince-1] Unless otherwise noted, all information in this article comes from Prince (2012) .