Tawala language

Tawala
Kehelala
Native to Papua New Guinea
Region Milne Bay Province
Native speakers
 20,000 (2000 census)[1]
Austronesian
Language codes
ISO 639-3 tbo
Glottolog tawa1275[2]

Tawala is an Oceanic language of the Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by 20,000 people who live in hamlets and small villages on the East Cape peninsula, on the shores of Milne Bay and on areas of the islands of Sideia and Basilaki. There are approximately 40 main centres of population each speaking the same dialect, although through the process of colonisation some centres have gained more prominence than others.[3]

Phonology

Tawala has a moderately small consonant inventory of 15 consonants, an average vowel quality inventory of five vowels, and an also average consonant-vowel ratio of 3.[4]

Consonants

LabialAlveolarRetroflexVelarGlottal
Plosive p  bt  dk  ɡɁ
Labialised Plosive pw  bwkw  ɡw
Nasal mn
Labialised Nasal mw
Fricative sh
Approximant jlɰ

Vowels

FrontCentralBack
Close iu
Mid eo
Open a

Morphology

Pronouns

Tawala distinguishes three persons: first, second and third. There are only two grammatical numbers, singular and plural although first person plural makes a distinction between inclusive and exclusive.[5]
Although there are five classes of pronouns in Tawala only the independent pronouns class should be considered as pronouns proper as they are the only class consisting of free forms. The remaining four classes occur with independent pronouns in a phrase.[6]

Independent Pronouns

PersonNumber
SingularPlural
1INC tautauta
1EXCL tauyai
2 tamtaumi
3 taunatauhi

Subject Prefix and Object Enclitic

Subject prefixes and object enclitics attach to a verb to mark person and number of both subject and object respectively.

1SG2SG3SG1PL.INC1PL.EXC2PL3PL
Object Enclitic -u/we-m-ni/ya-ta-yai-mi-hi
Subject Prefix a-u-i-ta-to-o-hi-


Example: The following examples demonstrate the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

Tauhihaimaehi-nonogo-ge-ni.
theytheirstay3PL-prepare-TRV-3SG
"They prepared their residence."

Possession

Tawala distinguishes alienable and inalienable possession.

Possessive Pronouns

Alienable possession is constructed by a free-standing possessive pronoun that marks the person and number of the possessor.

PersonNumber
SingularPlural
1INC uata
1EXCL i
2 omomi
3 ahai

Example: The following examples demonstrate the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

Lawahaitanohi-dewa-hi.
personPOSS.3PLgarden3PL-make-3PL
"The people made their gardens."
Pronominal Enclitics

Inalienable possession is constructed by attaching a pronominal enclitic to the possessed noun.

PersonNumber
SingularPlural
1INC -u/we-ta
1EXCL -yai
2 -m-mi
3 -na-hi

Example: The following example demonstrates the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

poloae-na
pigleg-POSS.3SG
"The pig's leg."

References

  1. ↑ Tawala at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Tawala". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Ezrad 1997, p. 6
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-06-12. Retrieved 2010-06-03. , chapters 1-3
  5. ↑ Ezrad 1997, p. 72
  6. ↑ Ezrad 1997, p. 72

Bibliography

Ezard, Bryan. 1997, A grammar of Tawala: an Austronesian language of the Milne Bay area, Papua New Guinea, The Australian National University, Canberra.
WALS Online 2011, viewed October 15, 2011, <http://wals.info/>.

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