Mavea language

Orthography

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

Pronouns

There are both free and bound pronouns. Free pronouns are common in many Pacific languages. These free pronouns do not change for gender, but shows numerical differences, including singular, plural, dual, or paucal.^[3]

For example:

• /mo/ = he/she/it (third person singular subject)
• He eats taro. = /mo-an pete/

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns includes personal names, vocatives, relational terms, and locatives. They do not proceed an article and can not be used with a determiner. To show gender distinction, males use the prefix /mol-/. For females, the prefix /vo-/ or /va-/ was added.^[3]

Common Nouns

Similar to the proper nouns, there are both bound and free common nouns. Both can be used in an argument, be quantified with a marker, be modified with a determiner, be the head of a relative clause, and be questioned with “who” or “what”. Bound common nouns are separated into nouns of kinship, body parts, bodily functions, and whole part relations. Also shows possessives.^[3]

Verbs

Verbal predicates are marked with a subject agreement prefix. There are intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, ambitransitive, ditransitive, and auxiliary.

Intransitive verbs are used when the subject has no direct object receiving the action.^[3]

Adverbs

There are two kinds of adverbs: phrasal adverbs and sentential adverbs. Sententail adverbs take up the entire sentence and appear after or before the verb’s core argument. For example: to show frequency, /te pong/ meaning “sometimes” is used as a sentential adverb.

Spatial adverbs are used to show the location of the speaker and the direction the speaker is speaking towards. For example: konaro means “here, at speaker’s location.” This is common in many Pacific languages.^[3]

Reduplication

Mavea shows partial reduplication in its grammar. Reduplication is used to show emphasis. For example: sua means “to paddle” and suosua means “to paddle intensely”. Sometimes when using reduplication, the vowels can change. Usually the “a” changes to “o” or “e”.^[3]

Adjectives

Adjectives can only be used as noun modifiers. There both adjectives as independent lexical items and also adjectives pulled from transitive verbs by using reduplication. For example: pulua is “paint” and “ima pulpulu” means “painted house”.^[3]

Prepositions

There are seven prepositions in Mavea.

Possession

Mavea distinguishes direct and indirect possession. Direct possessive constructions nouns take a bound possessive clitic. On the other hand, indirect possession is expressed by the presence of a classifier to which a possessive clitic is suffixed.^[7]

Direct possession

Direct possession is expressed by a possessive clitic attached to the noun when the possessor is not expressed as a Noun Phrase (NP). Alternatively, if no suffix exists for the person and number of the possessor, the nouns are followed by an independent pronoun.^[7]

The semantic classes of nouns participating in direct possessive constructions, include, body parts, and bodily functions, kinship terms, articles of clothing, and household goods.^[7]

Table of Possessive Clitics

A noun, which is directly possessed, takes a possessive clitic matching the possessor’s features.^[8]

For example:

Ka-deo mo-adia ro me ko-on tae=ku.

1SG.ιR-defecate 3SG-first then FUT 2SG-look excrement=lSG.POSS

Ί will defecate first, then you will look at my excrement’ ^[8]

and

This third person singular possessive clitic, pronounced as [na], is suffixed to the noun ‘Laloa’ for ‘saliva’.

Lalao=na mo-si mo-va.

saliva=3SG.POSS 3SG-go.down 3SG-go

'Her saliva was hanging down.’ ^[7]

Non-pronominal possessors

If a full NP expresses the possessor, the possessee takes the construct suffix –n, or can be pronounces [na], although the this construct suffix is a homophony of the possessive clictic –n and –na the distribution is different as displayed in the following example(s);^[8]

Note that the case of Full NP, the possessee precedes the possessor

Ra-tau ese-n Piria.

3PL-put name-CONS wild.yam

'They named it Piria’ ^[9]

and

Natu-n vomae mo-sa mo-sakel na patu-n kou.

child-CONS dove 3SG-go.up 3SG-sit LOC head-CONS fowl

'Dove's child went up and sat on Fowl's head.^[9]

Possession is recursive, in the following example, the noun ‘vulu’ which is possessed by the noun ‘vanatu’ which in turn is possessed by John, therefore both nouns a suffixed with –[n].

vulu-n vanatu-n John

hair-CONS daughter-CONS John

'John's daughter’s hair’ ^[8]

Indirect possession

Nouns in indirect possession constructions do not take a possessive clitic, they require a classifier to which a possessive clitic (or construct suffix) is attached.^[8]

There are six classifiers in Mavea:

a- ‘to be eaten’

ma- ‘to be drunk’

no- ‘general possession, valuables’

pula- ‘anima raised, vegetable planted’

sa- ‘housing and land’

madoue- ‘a dead man’s possession’ ^[10]

classifier "a-" infers that the item is possessed is meant to be eaten

Mo-vir loko a=na.

3sG-throw laplap CLF.eat=3SG.POSS

'She threw his laplap (to eat)’ ^[11]

If the possessor is a full NP, the classifier is market with the construct -n

           Nira ra-ve       inanan vaisesea a-n                    re  famli.

3pl 3PL-make food small CLF.eat-CONS PL family

'They make a small party for the families (to eat)’ ^[11]

Summarised

^[12]

Bound Pronouns

Bound pronouns are obligatory at the beginning of a predicate phrase. Only 1SG and 3SG inflect for mood.^[14]