Mavea language

Mavea
Spoken in	Vanuatu
Region	Mafea Island
Native speakers	approx. 34  (date missing)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic Vanuatu North Vanuatu Santo–Malekula Santo West Santo Mavea
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mkv
ISO 639-3	mkv
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Mavea (also known as Mav̋ea or Mafea) is an Oceanic language spoken on the island of Mavea in Vanuatu, off the eastern coast of Espiritu Santo. It belongs to the North–Central Vanuatu linkage of Southern Oceanic. The total population of the island is approximately 172, with only 34 fluent speakers of the Mavea language remaining as of 2008. ^[1]

Phonology

Mavea has 15 consonants and 8 vowels.^[2]

Consonants ^[3]

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Linguolabial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Velar
Stop	p		t̼	t		ɖ	k
Fricative		v	ð̼		s
Trill					r
Nasal	m		n̼		n		ŋ
Approximant							w
Lateral					l

Plosives in Mavea are not aspirated. ^[4]

Vowels ^[5]

	i	e	a	o	u
High	+				+
Back			+	+	+
Low			+
Rounded				+	+

Orthography

Linguolabial consonants are represented using the corresponding labial consonant with a diaeresis diacritic on top: p̋ [t̼]; v̋ [ð̼]; m̋ [n̼].^[6] The retroflex [ɖ] is represented in the orthography as d.

Morphology

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Mavea do not inflect for case or gender, but do show number (singular, dual, paucal, plural). First person non-singular has an inclusive/exclusive distinction. Independent personal pronouns are not obligatory, but are used for emphasis, contrast or focus ^[7].

Person	Number
	Singular	Plural	Dual	Paucal
1INC	na(o)	(n)ida	darua/ô	datol
1EXCL		kam̋am	kam̋arua/o	kam̋atol
2	nno	kam̋im	kamruo/a	kamtol
3	nna	nira	rarua/o	ratol

Example:^[8]

me

ro

nno

me

ko

-l

-suruv

atano,

na

nao

me

ro

ka

-suruv

aul

pere

-n

vuae

FUT

then

2SG

FUT

2SG

-IMPF

-sleep

ground

but

1SG

FUT

then

1SG.IR

-sleep

above

branch

-CONS

tree

"You, you will sleep on the ground, but I, I will sleep in the tree"

Bound Pronouns

Bound pronouns are obligatory at the beginning of a predicate phrase. Only 1SG and 3SG inflect for mood. ^[9]

Subject Agreement Markers^[10]

Person	Number
	Singular		Plural	Dual	Paucal
	Realis	Irrealis	Realis and Irrealis
1INC	na-	ka-	da-	dar-	datol-
1EXCL			ki-	kir-	kitol-
2	ko-	ko-	ki-	kir-	kitol-
3	mo-	i-	ra-	rar-	ratol

Object Enclitics^[11]

Person	Number
	Singular	Plural
1INC	-ao	(i)da
1EXCL		-
2	-o	-
3	-a	(i)ra

Example:^[12]

Varua	nno	ko-kolai=ao
bird	2SG	2SG-lie=1SG
"Cardinal, you lied to me"

Notes

1. ^ Guérin 2008: p. 2
2. ^ Cf. Guérin 2011.
3. ^ Guérin 2008: p. 30
4. ^ Guérin 2008: p. 12
5. ^ Guérin 2008: p. 30
6. ^ Presentation of Mavea.
7. ^ Guérin 2008: p. 76
8. ^ Guérin 2008: p. 77
9. ^ Guérin 2008: p. 77
10. ^ Guérin 2008: p. 78
11. ^ Guérin 2008: p. 78
12. ^ Guérin 2008: p. 78

Links

• Presentation of Mavea by Valérie Guérin.
• Access to archives Mavea (site of ELAR-SOAS)
• Mavea-English-Bislama Dictionary

References

• Guérin, Valérie (2008). Discovering Mavea: Grammar, texts, and lexicon. Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics, University of Hawai'i.
• Guérin, Valérie (2011). A Grammar of Mavea: An Oceanic Language of Vanuatu. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications, No. 39. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i press. pp. 424. ISBN 9780824836399. http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-8629-9780824836399.aspx. Retrieved 12 November 2011.