Äiwoo language
Äiwoo | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Reef | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pronunciation | [æiwoː] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Native to | Solomon Islands | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Region | Santa Cruz Islands, eastern Solomons, Temotu Province. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Native speakers | (8,400 cited 1999)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Language family | Austronesian
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Writing system | Latin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Language codes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ISO 639-3 | nfl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Glottolog | ayiw1239 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ELP | Äiwoo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coordinates: Äiwoo (/ˈeɪwoʊ, ˈaɪ-/ AY-woh, EYE-) is an Oceanic language spoken on the Santa Cruz Islands and the Reef Islands in the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands.[1] NameThe Äiwoo language has been known under many names in the literature, including: Aŷiwo, Ayiwo, Aïwo, Gnivo, Lanlom, Lomlom, Naaude, Nifilole, Nivo, Reef Islands, and Reefs. Speakers and distributionÄiwoo has roughly 8,400 native speakers with roughly 5,000-6,000 of these living on the Reef islands and the rest living on the Santa Cruz islands.[1] As such, Äiwoo is the largest of the Reef Islands – Santa Cruz languages. Most speakers live on the Ngawa and Ngäsinue islands in the Reef Islands; others live in some villages on Vanikoro or on Nendö, like Kala Bay. Finally, some communities have recently been established in the capital Honiara, notably in the White River district. SociolinguisticsOn the Reef islands, Äiwoo is the primary language spoken by all of its people. Most of them also speak Pijin, the lingua franca of the Solomon Islands, while only a few people also speak English. The schooling system uses Äiwoo on the primary and secondary school level, though a standardized orthography for Äiwoo has not yet been adopted, resulting in a decline of people who can read and write. PhonologyConsonants
Vowels
OrthographyÄiwoo uses a variation of the Latin alphabet. The following spelling conventions are taken from Næss’ dictionary of Äiwoo.[2]
Note that Äiwoo distinguishes ä [æ] and â [ɑ,ɒ], both of which appear in the word kânongä 'I want'. Word classesNounsNouns are used to describe a person, place or thing. Nouns in Äiwoo can be paired with a suffix to show a possessive case. An example of this is tumo 'my father'. Other nouns in Äiwoo can be followed by a possessive particle, as in kuli nou 'my dog'.[citation needed] Bound nounsBound nouns are one subtype of nouns; they act like nouns but cannot be used by themselves and need to be paired with a verb, possessive case, or another noun instead. Local nounsLocal nouns are another subtype of nouns, but are not like regular nouns because they can be used to indicate location without a preposition. ex: ngä: ikuwä ngââgu ngä: ikuwä ngââgu ‘I’m going to the bush.’ VerbsVerbs in Äiwoo are divided into three different classes: intransitive verbs, A-verbs, and O-verbs. Intransitive verbsThese combine only with one noun or pronoun to form a sentence but also take a prefix to indicate an action. ex: ikuwä ikuwä ‘I go’ A-VerbsSimilarly to intransitive verbs, A-verbs take a prefix to indicate an action; however, they combine with another noun or pronoun. ex: ikiläke näte ikiläke näte ‘I’m chopping firewood.’ O-VerbsDifferent from intransitive verbs, O-verbs take suffixes to say who is performing the action with the noun and pronoun. ex: nyenaa eângâ kiläkino nyenaa eângâ kiläkino ‘I chop down the tree.’ Phonological structure of verbsThere are no verbs that start with the sounds a, ä, â, or o. The majority of verbs in Äiwoo begin with the phoneme /e/ followed by a vowel, as e.g. eâmoli ‘to look’. Verbal derivationVerbs beginning with the phonemes /v/ and /w/ are defined as causative verbs. Causative verbs are made by combining a causative prefix to the letters /v/ and /w/. In the Äiwoo language, the two causative prefixes are wâ- and vä-. ex: wânubo wânubo ‘kill' PrepositionsIn the Äiwoo language, ngä and go are two important prepositions. ngä translates to 'in, at, on, to, from', while go corresponds to 'for, with, because of'. PronounsPronouns are words that take the place of nouns. An example of a pronoun is iu ‘I’. Possessive MarkersPossessive markers are used after a noun to show the possessor of a person, place or thing. ex: nenu numo nenu numo ‘my coconut’ Relational markersSimilarly to possessive markers, relational markers are used to show relations between a noun and something else. ex: sime lä nuumä sime lä nuumä ‘a person from the village’ DemonstrativesÄiwoo demonstrative can cover several syntactic functions, but all share the property of distinguishing between a ‘here, close by’ and a ‘there, far away’ form. ConjunctionsConjunctions are used to link together phrases or clauses. ex: eä eä ‘and’ QuantifiersQuantifiers are words that are used to show quantity. ex: du du ‘all’ InterjectionsInterjections are adjectives that are used by themselves without the need of other descriptive words. ex: sikäi sikäi 'Oh!' MorphologyIntransitive subject formsIn the Äiwoo language, lu- and li- are closely related to the verb stem and are thus the oldest subject prefixes still used. The other subject prefixes that follow after lu- and li- are newer, created other syntactic roles. However, one exclusion to the list of new subject prefixes are with i. Transitive subject formsTransitive subject forms are suffixed. In addition, transitive subject forms have possessive-like forms. Nominalizing prefixesThere are eight different nominalizing prefixes that are combined with a verb to create a noun which describes a person, thing, or place. These prefixes are:
Class prefixesIn the Äiwoo language, class prefixes are combined with a noun or verb. Gender marking prefixesÄiwoo gender marking prefixes can be traced back to their Oceanic origin. To create a gender marking prefix, gi- and si- from the nominalizing prefixes are combined with nouns. SyntaxThe Äiwoo language follows the word order OVS or Object-Verb-Subject. TransitivityIn Äiwoo, three different verbal clauses are distinguished: intransitive, transitive, and semitransitive. The main difference between these three verbal clauses is that intransitives concern only one person while transitives and semitransitives concern more than one person. In Oceanic languages, intransitive clauses follow the subject and verb format. Transitive clauses follow the order object, verb, subject. Semitransitive clauses use intransitive verbs with subject and object, resulting in a structured phrase order of subject, verb, object. References
External links
Bibliography
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Indigenous languages |
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