Tuvaluan language
| Tuvaluan | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Tuvalu , Fiji , Kiribati , Nauru , New Zealand | |
| speaker | 11,000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
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|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in |
 Tuvalu
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
tvl |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
tvl |
|
Tuvaluan (own name te ggana Tuuvalu 'Tuvaluan language' or te ggana a taatou 'our language' ) is a Polynesian language spoken by the approximately 11,000 inhabitants of Tuvalu. In addition to English, it is the official language of the state of Tuvalu and is spoken by migrant communities in Fiji , Kiribati , Nauru and New Zealand . Tokelau and Tuvaluan are mutually understandable.
Geographical distribution
Tuvaluan is spoken by around 11,000 speakers (1998 census) in the nine atolls of the Pacific island state of Tuvalu, which is only 26 km² in size and located in the foothills of the Polynesian triangle, as well as by Tuvaluan migrants in Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru and New Zealand.
Dialects
Tuvaluan has seven dialects whose language area corresponds to the seven traditionally settled atolls, but which are so similar that the inhabitants of the islands can communicate with one another without any particular difficulty. Two dialect areas (dialect units) have emerged: the northern Tuvaluan dialects are spoken on the islands of Nanumanga , Nanumea and Niutao , the southern Tuvaluan dialects are spoken on the islands of Nukufetau , Vaitupu , Funafuti and Nukulaelae . Niulakita has only been permanently settled since the 20th century. On Nui a dialect of is Kiribati spoken. The seven dialects differ mainly in phonology and vocabulary. The dialects of Funafuti and Vaitupu have a hegemonic position, as Funafuti is the seat of government and Radio Tuvalu and Vaitupu has until recently the only secondary school.
Phonetics and Phonology
The sound system
Like most Polynesian languages, Tuvaluan has a relatively small phoneme inventory . It has ten to eleven consonants and five vowels . Both consonants and vowels can appear as geminates .
| bilabial | labiodental | alveolar | velar | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | t | k | ||
| nasal | m | n | g [ ŋ ] | ||
| Fricative | f / v | s | (H) | ||
| Lateral | l |
The plosives are voiceless and, in unmined use, are not aspirated. However, they can also appear as slightly voiced plosives, or as unvoiced or slightly voiced fricatives. Geminated plosives are highly aspirated. The glottal fricative [h] has phoneme status only in the dialects of Nanumea and Nanumanga. In the Nukulaelae dialect, it occurs morpheminitially as an allophone of / s / or / f / only in a few words . In the southern dialects it is always / s / or / f /. The phoneme / l / can also be realized as a flap in the Nukulaelae dialect.
| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| high | i | u | |
| medium | e | O | |
| deep | a |
Geminated vowels are realized as long vowels.
Phonotactics
As in most Polynesian languages, Tuvaluan only has open syllables . The most common morpheme structure is KVKV.
There are no consonant clusters apart from the geminates, which are created by vowel cancellation. This occurs when two KV sequences are identical in a word and the second has the main accent. Vowel deletion can exceed morpheme boundaries. It is optional in the northern dialects.
All possible clusters of two vowels are occupied. Clusters of three vowels are less common. The combinations / eua / and / uau / are not used. There are some clusters of four vowels and two clusters of five vowels, in the interjections eiauee and oiauee , expressing suffering and pain.
The sequence / vu / is only used in foreign words and / vo / only occurs in one word.
Word stress
The word stress is morally dependent. Words with a More unstressed. Words with two or more moras have an accent in the Penultima-More, such as B. ave ['ave] "to send" or maafatia [ma: fa'tia] "saddened". If the stress is assigned to a non-geminated high vowel that immediately follows a non-high vowel, the stress shifts to the non-high vowel and the high vowel is implemented as an approximant, as in fetaui [fe'tawi] " meet ”, faiva ['fayva] (a method of fishing).
Reduplication
The Tuvaluan language uses both total and partial reduplication .
Total reduplication only exists for two-core roots and is only productive for verbs that are given an iterative meaning, e.g. teletele from tele "rennen".
Partial reduplication is very productive and can serve various functions. A distinction can be made between external and internal partial reduplication.
With external partial reduplication , the reduplicated element can be treated as a prefix or a suffix. In the case of two-core words, the stressed More is duplicated, as in oola from ola "alive". If there is a consonant in front of the stressed More, the reduplication also affects it. The vowel is then deleted, since two identical KV sequences follow one another, as in ttula from tula " kahl ". For words with three or more moras, the last two moras and the consonants preceding them are affected, as in uateetee from uatee "loud" or foolikiliki from fooliki "small".
In the case of internal partial reduplication , the reduplicated element must be treated as an infix. It only affects words with three or more morons. If the stressed vowel of a word with three mores is directly preceded by a consonant, the reduplication affects this consonant and the vowel that precedes it, but separately on each segment, as in siinnaa from sinaa "white (hair)". If the stressed vowel is not directly preceded by a consonant, the reduplication affects the stressed vowel itself and the vowel that precedes it, as "curved" in gaaoofe from gaofe . If a segment to be reduplicated has already been mined in the three-core word, the reduplication only affects the other segment, as “bitten” by mauu in maauu . For words with four or more moras, only the consonant that immediately precedes the stressed vowel is reduplicated, or, if no consonant directly precedes, the stressed vowel itself, as in foollloki from fooliki "small" and fakaeeke from fakaeke "to something Support heightened ". With intransitive verbs, the number congruence with the subject is marked by internal partial reduplication .
grammar
syntax
Tuvaluan is an ergative language . Absolutives are usually not marked, but can optionally be marked with the absolute contrast marker a . Ergatives are identified by the case marker nee .
The word order of intransitive sentences is VS or SV:
- VS: Koo fano | Niu
- INCH go | Niu
- Niu has gone.
- SV: Niu koo fano
- Niu | INCH go
- Niu has gone.
The basic word order of transitive sentences is VSO . VOS and OVS are also occupied, as is SVO. However, the subject cannot get an ergative mark in the preverbal position. The absolute contrast marker can optionally be used instead.
- VSO: Ne ffuti | no niu | te atu teelaa
- PST pull | ERG Niu | ART Bonito DEM
- Niu pulled that bonito (fish) ashore.
- VOS: Ne ffuti | te atu teelaa | no niu
- PST pull | ART Bonito DEM | ERG Niu
- Niu pulled that bonito (fish) ashore.
- OVS: Te atu teelaa | ne ffuti | no niu
- ART Bonito DEM | PST pull | ERG Niu
- Niu pulled that bonito (fish) ashore.
- SVO: Niu | ne ffuti | te atu teelaa
- Niu | PST pull | ART Bonito DEM
- Niu pulled that bonito (fish) ashore.
In ditransitive sentences, the indirect object must always be realized post-verbally; the unmarked order is VSdOiO. Indirect objects are marked with the directional preposition ki (in written language also ki luga ), more rarely with the benefactive preposition moo .
Special classes of intransitive verbs
Some intransitive verbs take two arguments. This includes a) verbs of bringing, taking, encounter and some verbs that describe ownership relationships, b) verbs with an experiencer argument and c) verbs that describe a cause-target scheme. These verbs take a patient argument in the absolute and a) an agent argument that is characterized by the comitative preposition mo as an oblique, b) an experiencer argument that is characterized by the locational preposition i as an oblique, or c) an agent or cause -Argument denoted as oblique by the locational preposition i .
Moreover, the language Tuvaluan means verbs that a subject in Absolutiv and means object by directional preposition ki or lokationale preposition i rule is highlighted. Middle verbs are basically lexically defined, but for Tuvaluan it can be said that many verbs that encode emotions or volitional sensory perceptions (e.g. fakalogo “listen” as opposed to “hear”) are classified as middle verbs. Besnier counts the middle verbs among the intransitive verbs, since they behave like intransitive verbs in various morphological processes. Middle verbs occur in various Polynesian languages, including a. also in Samoan .
The one-constituent slope
In natural discourse, Tuvaluan shows a tendency towards sentences (in the sense of "clause"), which consist of a verb and a single NP. This has an influence on intransitive and transitive sentences.
For intransitive sentences , no subjectless constructions are allowed. Tuvaluan also has no semantically empty subjects. As in Russian and Semitic languages , for example, weather verbs always take a subject that encodes a weather phenomenon.
- Koo ppaa | fattili
- INCH explode | thunder
- There's thunder. (literally: thunder explodes.)
The one- constituent tendency acts on transitive sentences by reducing arguments where possible. Subjects do not have to be realized if they encode a generic, unidentifiable or non-referential agent, or if it is not important for the context to identify the agent. Subjects and objects do not have to be realized if their identity is evident from the linguistic or extra-linguistic context. Certain verbs that allow Equi-NP deletion or accentuation verbs can also be used. These have the effect that one constituent of the underlying transitive sentence becomes the argument of the equi verb and the other constituent becomes the argument of the embedded transitive verb. In such a context, equi and accentuation verbs have little or no semantic content. Often the agent of a transitive verb is expressed as possessor des patient. An OV position is then, in contrast to the expression "real" ownership, not possible. The coding of the agent as possessor des patient is in fact the unmarked form, the ergative case is actually only used when the agent bears a high degree of responsibility for the action described.
- Ne kkati | telotou niu.
- PST cases | their coconut palm
- They felled a coconut tree. (literal: felled their coconut palm.)
- Ne kkati | nee laatou | niu.
- PST cases | ERG them | Coconut palm
- They were the ones who felled the coconut palm. (literally: They felled a coconut tree.)
It is interesting that the Popol Vuh , a colonial-era document in the Mayan language Quiché, contains evidence of the coding of an agent as Possessor des Patiens. However, this construction can only be used there if the agent is actually the possessor of the patient, or if the action expressed by the verb acquires complete control over the patient.
vocabulary
Tuvaluan shares parts of the vocabulary with other Polynesian languages . Te Atua means “God” in Tuvaluan as in Māori .
font
Tuvaluan does not have a uniform spelling . Most speakers use a Samoan-based orthography in Latin script.
Research history
Tuvalu was relatively isolated until the beginning of the 20th century, although Spanish explorers had sighted the islands of Nui and Niulakita as early as 1568 and 1595.
The Tuvaluan language was first mentioned in 1846 by Horatio Hale , a member of the United States Exploring Expedition , who published a 120-word list of the Vaitupu dialect in his philological memoir. Various other word lists were published in the early 20th century. Since the 1980s, Niko Besnier has published numerous articles on Tuvaluan. Other notable works are by Donald G. Kennedy , Peter Ranby , Geoffrey W. Jackson, and Jay Noricks .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Besnier 2000: xxi
- ↑ a b http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=tvl
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: xx
- ↑ a b c Besnier 2000: xvii
- ↑ Gerd Koch : The material culture of the Ellice Islands. Museum of Ethnology, Berlin 1961, p. 11.
- ↑ a b c Besnier 2000: xxiii
- ^ Besnier 2000: xxi-xxiii
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: 608
- ↑ Besnier, 2000: 608-609
- ↑ Besnier, 2000: 609-610
- ^ Besnier 2000: 610
- ^ Besnier 2000: 612-613
- ^ Besnier 2000: 610-611
- ↑ a b c Besnier 2000: 611
- ^ Besnier 2000: 618
- ^ Besnier 2000: 612
- ↑ a b c Besnier 2000: 614
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: 619
- ↑ a b c d Besnier 2000: 620
- ↑ Besnier, 2000: 620-621
- ↑ a b c Besnier 2000: 621
- ^ Besnier 2000: 622
- ^ Besnier 2000: 515, 517
- ↑ a b c d e f Besnier 2000: 131
- ^ Besnier 2000: 130
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: 267-271
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: 271-275
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: 275-279
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: 293
- ↑ Besnier 2000: 295-297
- ^ Besnier 2000: 292
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: 134
- ↑ a b c Besnier 2000: 135
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: 128-129
- ^ Besnier 2000: 129
- ^ Besnier 2000: 126-127
- ^ Besnier 2000: 134, 283
- ^ Besnier 2000: 285
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: 283
- ↑ a b Dürr 2003: 192
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: xxvi
- ↑ a b Besnier 2000: xxv
literature
General descriptions and grammars
- Besnier, Niko: Tuvaluan. A Polynesian Language of the Central Pacific . Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 0-415-02456-0
- Dürr, Michael: Morphology, syntax and text structures of the (Mayan) Quiche des Popol Vuh. Linguistic description of a colonial-era document from the highlands of Guatemala . Revised and corrected electronic new edition. Berlin 2003. Available as a PDF document at: http://home.snafu.de/duerr/download.html
