Vamale language

Vamale
Vamale
Hmwaeke
Native to	New Caledonia
Native speakers	180 (from 2016)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic New Caledonian – Loyalties New Caledonian Northern New Caledonian Voh-Koné Vamale; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Vamale; Hmwaeke;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mkt
Glottolog	vama1243
ELP	Vamale

Vamale (Pamale) is a Kanak language of northern New Caledonia. The Hmwaeke dialect, spoken in Tiéta, is fusing with Haveke and nearly extinct. Vamale is nowadays spoken in Tiendanite (called "Usa Vamale"), We Hava, Téganpaïk and Tiouandé. It was spoken in the Pamale valley and its tributaries Vawe and Usa until the colonial of war of 1917, when its speakers were displaced.

Phonology[]

Vamale has five phonemic vowel articulations, and 35 consonant phonemes.

Vowels[]

While Vamale distinguishes five vowel phonemes, /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, nasality and length are phonemic as well. Compare /tã/ 'oven' and /ta/ 'go up', /ˈfa.ti/ 'speech' and /ˈfaː.ti/ 'to stick, to glue'.

Depending on the length of the vowel, and on the final consonant of the syllable, /e/ and /o/ can be realized more open: plosives and short syllables trigger open vowels (e.g. [tɔːt] 'grass' [sɛn] 'poison'), while open syllables, and long ones closed by nasals, feature closed vowels.


	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-Mid	e		o
Open-Mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Consonants[]

The estuary and mangrove of Tiouandé, a major village of Vamale speakers

As is typical of Northern New Caledonian languages, Vamale has a wealth of consonants. The distinction reconstructible since Proto-Oceanic is between nasals, semi-nasals (pre-nasalized voiced plosives, i.e. /ᵐb/, /ⁿɟ/ etc.), and orals.

Consonants in Vamale. Non-phonemes are in brackets.
	Bilabial	Labiovelarized Bilabial	Labiodental	Labiovelarized Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labiovelarized Velar	Glottal
Plosive	pʰ p ᵐb	pʰʷ pʷ ᵐbʷ			tʰ t ⁿd	(cʰ) c ⁿɟ	kʰ k ᵑg
Nasal	m̥ m	m̥ʷ mʷ			n̥ n	ɲ̥ ɲ	(ŋ̥) ŋ
Tap					(ɾ)
Fricative			f v	fʷ vʷ			x ɣ	xʷ	h
Approximant						j		w
Lateral Approximant					l̥ l

Syntax[]

Pronouns[]

Personal pronouns
	1 inclusive	1 exclusive	2	3
SG		yo	go	ya
DU	gasu	abu	gau	lu
PL	gase/gaa	abe	gavwe	le

Demonstrative pronouns
	Proximal	Distal
SG	ehni	ena
DU	muuhni	muuna
PL	niehni	niena

Nouns[]

Possession[]

Possessive suffixes
		Inalienable	Alienable
SG	1	-ong	-(e)ong
	2	-m	-go
	3	-n	-(e)a
DU	1 incl	-(a)ju	-gasu
	1 excl	-(a)bu	-abu
	2	-(a)u	-u
	3	-(a)lu	-lu
PL	1 incl	-(a)je	-gaa
	1 excl	-(a)be	-abu
	2	-(a)vwe	-gavwe
	3	-(a)le	-le

References[]

^ Vamale at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

External links[]

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[e18-1] Vamale at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

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