A Grammar of Mavea: An Oceanic Language of Vanuatu

Chapter 2 Phonology

Chapter 2 Phonology Throughout this study, words exemplifying the phonemes are presented in their orthographic forms unless otherwise stated, that is, when they appear between square brackets representing a phonetic transcription, or between slashes for a phonemic transcription. The following notation is also used: syllables are separated by a period, the symbol # indicates the edge of a word, while morpheme boundaries are indicated by the symbol +. Note that part of this chapter appeared in Guérin and Aoyama (2009). Information about the prosody (intonation patterns ) can be found in Guérin (2008b) and is not reported here. 2.1 Consonants The set of consonant phonemes in Mav̋ea is summarized in Table 2.1. Table 2.1 Consonants Linguo-labial Bilabial Labio-dental Alveolar Retroflex Velar Stop p ! p t ã k Nasal m ! m n N Trill r Fricative v ! v s Lateral l Approximant w The phonemes are examined in detail in the following subsections. In particular , the contrast between linguo-labials and labials (maintained by only two speakers on Mav̋ea Island) appears in §2.1.3. §2.1.4 presents the phoneme /v/, spelled , with its allophones [B], [f], and [v]. §2.1.5 illustrates /p/ and its allophones, while §2.1.6 describes the contrast between /t/ and /ã/. The status of the approximant /w/ is detailed in §2.1.7. Finally, §2.1.8 argues that there are no prenasalized stops in Mav̋ea. 2.1.1 Minimal pairs To illustrate the consonant phonemes presented in Table 2.1, minimal and near minimal pairs are given below. Note that none of the plosives is aspirated or prenasalized (see below §2.1.8) as is the case in the related language Tamambo (Riehl and Jauncey 2005:256). 11 2 Phonology (2) /m ! /-/m/ m̋ata ‘dead’ mata ‘snake’ /m ! /-/n/ m̋ap̋ar ‘k.o. tree’ napar ‘today’ /n/-/N/ tan ‘begin’ tang ‘cry, mourn’ /n/-/r/ sana ‘dirty’ sara ‘clean’ /ã/-/r/ dodo ‘cloud’ roro ‘noise, sound’ /t/-/ã/ utu ‘louse’ udu ‘tooth’ /p !/-/p/ p̋aio ‘shark’ pai ‘shoulder’ /p !/-/t/ p̋aka ‘bow’ taka ‘spiny rabbit fish’ /v !/-/v/ v̋eia ‘to make’ vea ‘to insult’ /v/-/p/ varava ‘female pig’ para ‘spider’ /v !/-/p !/ av̋a ‘crab’ ap̋a ‘wing’ /v/-/s/ vuro ‘war’ sureia ‘hide s.t.’ 2.1.2 Geminates Four consonants (i.e., /l/, /r/, /m/, and /n/) can be geminated. The contrasts are presented in the form of near minimal pairs below. (3) /l/-/l:/ lua ‘vomit’ llua ‘roll s.t’ malao ‘Megapodius bird’ mallao ‘Turtle island’ /r/-/r:/ ru ‘go in’ rru ‘insist’ ro ‘after, then’ rro ‘fast’ /m/-/m:/ lama ‘light’ amma ‘before’ /n/-/n:/ na ‘but’ nna ‘3sg’ no- ‘classifier’ nno ‘2sg’ Geminates have a low functional load. In rapid speech, gemination is almost imperceptible. The pronoun nna ‘3SG,’ a high-frequency word, is often pronounced [na]. The geminates /r:/ and /l:/ were only discovered when consultants provided minimal pairs. 2.1.3 Linguo-labials Linguo-labials (also known as apico-labials) are quite rare amongst the world’s languages. In Vanuatu, they constitute an areal feature for South Santo and North Malakula (Clark 1985:205; François 2002:15; Lynch 2005:389; Maddieson 1987:23). 2.1.3.1 Data from Tryon (1976) Table 2.2 includes the 58 lexemes with lingo-labials listed in Tryon (1976). Note that the total number of linguo-labials is 66 in this set. Several lexemes contain two linguo-labials, such as m̋am̋avan ‘play’ and v̋av̋ine ‘woman.’ 12 2 Phonology Table 2.2 Linguo-labials in Tryon (1976) arrow v̋ine four v̋ati sail ap̋anina5 ash[es] makov̋i give lav̋ia6 seed p̋iri axe m̋ataBono go v̋ano seven rav̋e rua banana v̋atali how many iv̋isa shark p̋aio biche de mer m̋ene laugh m̋ana six m̋arava bird/fish m̋asi left hand m̋arao suck om̋m̋a7 blind m̋ataBoko light m̋asala sweat m̋am̋aone bow p̋aka lightning v̋ila tomorrow inov̋i breadfruit p̋eo live m̋auri tongue m̋em̋e butterfly p̋ep̋e long p̋araBu walk v̋anv̋ano come m̋a meat v̋isio warm op̋o correct m̋aso men’s house am̋ali wash lsov̋ia8 cut ap̋ea moon v̋itu we(excl) kam̋am dead m...