North Efate language

North Efate
Nakanamanga
Nguna
Region	Efate, Vanuatu
Native speakers	9,500 (2001)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic Vanuatu Central Vanuatu North Efate
Language codes
ISO 639-3	llp
Glottolog	nort2836

North Efate, also known as Nakanamanga or Nguna, is an Oceanic language spoken on the northern area of Efate in Vanuatu, as well as on a number of islands off the northern coast – including Nguna, and parts of Tongoa, Emae and Epi.

The population of speakers is recorded to be 9,500.^[2] This makes Nakanamanga one of the largest languages of Vanuatu, an archipelago known for having the world's highest linguistic density.^[3]

Phonology[]

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The consonant and vowels sounds of North Efate (Nguna).^[4]

Consonant sounds

		Labial	Dental	Velar
Stop	plain	p	t̪	k
	implosive	ɓʷ
Fricative		v	s
Nasal	plain	m	n	ŋ
	prenasal	ᵑm
Liquid			l r
Approximant		w

Vowel sounds

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Subdialects of North Efate include:^[5]

• Buninga
• Emau
• Livara
• Nguna
• Paunangis
• Sesake

Typology follows Subject Object Verb order as is observed in Nguna^[2]

Verbs and verb classes[]

Verbs are prefixed with other stems that enable them to be differentiated at the morphological level^[6]

Two types of Intransitive Verbs:

A Verbs: Actor Subject

U Verbs: Experiencer Subject

Auxiliary verbs[]

Auxiliary verb accessorize main verbs in a pre-verbal complex

Pi[]

The word pi can introduce a predicate nominal or adjective

In this case the predicate nominal "turtle" is introduced by the "pi"

In this case the adjective, boring, describing the situation is also introduced by the "pi"

This pi also serves as an designation for equative structures that discern the identity of two entities^[6]

The women (subject) are also being ascribed the identity of wives (predicate)

Words like pi serve as existentials, where they serve a presentative function, announcing novel information into the conversation, while also notifying existence of its deignee

Pato[]

The word "pato" signifies the location of a subject

Note how the pato denotes the location of the subject in Queensland, like a general designation of place

me[]

This word is a conjunction that can serve to oppose separate clauses like the word "but" or establish a connection to them like the word "and".^[6]

Notice how the meaning of the "me" is determined by the opposition generated by the last part "not want" which goes against the grain of the sentence effectively signifying the meaning of me as "but"

Again, we see how the "me" is separating the two clauses and signifying an opposition between them because of the negative

The adherence of the clauses effectively changes the meaning of the "me" in this sentence, since there are no lexical markers signifying opposition of what the clauses are trying to present. Thus me serves to conjoin both the clauses. From this, one can see that the meaning of "me" is largely driven by the context of the words around it .

Other grammatical facts[]

Interrogative prosody[]

Intonation plays a crucial role in defining a phrase as interrogative, in this case, a characteristic rise and subsequent fall is observed in the last word (often in English this is seen as a rise in the last word of an interrogative phrase) ^[6]

Tags[]

Tags accessorize a sentence to add data to the question, often accompanied by the proper intonation cues.^[6]

ko[]

Serving the purpose as "or", and goes to express that the opposite of the phrase or phenomena it follows could in fact be the reality

eh[]

Serving the purpose as "isn't it", and this word serves as a request a repeat of the information. Note, it can be used independently and carries meaning in and of itself. Often in conversation it used by a party seeking clarification on a certain point

Go[]

The Efate word 'go' is analogous to the English 'and' in that it connects two clauses ^[6]

Na[]

Na is a purposive word that indicates the purpose of an action^[6]

Clauses[]

The order of clauses is SVO. A sentence consists most basically of a verb stem with a subject.^[6]

References[]

• Ray, Sidney H. (1887). "Sketch of Nguna Grammar". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 16: 409–418. doi:10.2307/2841882. JSTOR 2841882.
• Schütz, Albert J. (1969). "Nguna Grammar". Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications.

Notes[]