Mono-Alu language
Mono, or Alu, is an Oceanic language of Solomon Islands reported in 1999 to be spoken by 660 people on Treasury Island, 2,270 on Shortland Island, and 14 on Fauro Island.
Phonology
Mono-Alu language has been studied extensively by Joel L. Fagan, a researcher for the Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies at Australian National University. Their publication, "A Grammatical Analysis of Mono-Alu," is one of the first and only translations and analysis of Mono-Alu language.Joel L. Fagan identified the Mono-Alu language as having twenty eight phonemes. They are made up of nine diphthongs, and five vowels and fourteen consonants that make up the alphabet.
The Alu Alphabet
- The Alu alphabet has 19 letters: A B D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T U V.
- Of these letters: D was seldom used instead of R for euphony sake; but it has to be used now for the new foreign words or names introduced in the language spoken. H generally is or can be replaced by F.
Pronunciation
1. Pronunciation of Vowels
'a' is usually pronounced as in "flat"a sometimes pronounced as in "fast"
'e' is always pronounced as in "ten"
'i' is always pronounced as in "tin"
'o' is always pronounced as in "not"
'u' is always pronounced as in "put"
2. Pronunciation of Diphthongs
'ai' is pronounced "aye" - e.g. "Galeai".sometimes the letters are pronounced separately
'ei' has no equivalent sound in English.
'oi' is pronounced "oy" - e.g. "ba-oi".
sometimes the letters are pronounced separately. - e.g. "o-i-sa".
'ui' used as a diphthong - e.g. "sui-o"
used separately - e.g. "ku-i" with the exception
3.Pronunciation of Consonants
'g' is always pronounced as in "Glas", "giddy". No reason to use in Alu 'q' as is done elsewhere. Here also, the words are fully written as they are pronounced - e.g. "ang, "ing", "ong", "ung". When, exceptionally, the 'n' is after 'g' as in "gnora", owing to the nasal pronunciation, the accentuated 'n' can be used as in Choiseul.'ng' is pronounced as in English with the exception of "uhg", the sound of 'u' being always the Latin one.
"ang" is pronounced as in "gang"
"ing" is pronounced as in "ring"
"eng" is pronounced as in "length"
"ong"is pronounced as in" wrong"
The other Consonants have the same sound in English."
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental/Alveolar/Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
| Plosive | p, b | t, d | k, g | ||
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Trill | r | ||||
| Fricative | f | s | h | ||
| Lateral approximant | l |
Numerals
The number system of Mono-Alu language is very similar to other Austronesian languages. For example, Mono-Alu shares the numbers two and five with the Hawaiian Polynesian language. A number for zero was available in the language, but it was under the same use as the word 'nothing.' Joel L. Fagan identified numbers from one to ten-thousand in Mono-Alu.| Cardinal | English |
| Menna | nothing |
| Kala | one |
| Elua | two |
| Episa | three |
| Ehati | four |
| Lima | five |
| Onomo | six |
| Hitu | seven |
| Alu | eight |
| Ulia | nine |
| Lafulu | ten |
| Lafulu rohona elea | eleven |
| Lafulu rohona elua | twelve |
| Lafulu rohona episa | thirteen |
| Lafulu rohona efati | fourteen |
| Lafulu rohona lima | fifteen |
| Lafulu rohona onomo | sixteen |
| Lafulu rohona hitu | seventeen |
| Lafulu rohona alu | eighteen |
| Lafulu rohona ulia | nineteen |
| Elua lafulu | twenty |
| Episa lafulu | thirty |
| Efati lafulu | forty |
| Lima lafulu | fifty |
| Onomo lafulu | sixty |
| Fitu lafulu | seventy |
| Alu lafulu | eighty |
| Ulia lafulu | ninety |
| Ea latuu | one-hundred |
| Elua latuu | two-hundred |
| Ea kokolei | one-thousand |
| Elua kokolei | two-thousand |
| Lafulu kokolei | ten-thousand |
Mono-Alu also made use of Ordinal Numbers. However, only 'first' is an actual word, where every other number upward is a grammatical construct.
| Ordinal | English |
| famma | First |
| Fa-elua-naang | Second |
| Fa-epis-naana | Third |
| Fa-ehati-naana | Fourth |
| Fa-lima-naana | Fifth |
| Fa-onomo-naana | Sixth |
| Fa-hitu-naana | Seventh |
| Fa-alu-naana | Eighth |
| Fa-ulia-naana | Ninth |
| Fa-lafulu-naana | Tent |
Grammar
Mono-Alu language, like many other Austronesian languages, uses two separate pronounce for the first-person plural. One is inclusive, including the listener; and the other is exclusive, not including the listener. There are also no third-person pronouns available in the language. Joel L. Fagan translated Pronouns and their possessives.| Person | Pronoun | Obj | Suffix | Other |
| 1s | mafa | -gu | sagu | |
| 2s | maito | -o | -ng | sang |
| 3s | -i, -ng | -na | sana | |
| 1p | maita | -ita | -ra | sara |
| 1p | mani | -ami | -mang, -ma | samang/sama |
| 2p | maang | -ang | -mia | samia |
| 3p | --- | -ri, -iri | -ria | saria |
The Mono-Alu language gets very specific for adverbs and other verb affixes. Verbs can be altered with a prefix, infix, and a suffix.
| Prefixes | Infixes | Suffixes | |||
| ang | relative prefix, alternate forms an, ai, a'nta | fa | infix denoting completion | ai | there, away |
| fa | causative prefix, fa becomes f before a, alternate form ha | fang | one another, alternate form fan | ma | hither, thither, alternate form ama |
| ta | infix or prefix showing action or state. | fero | elsewhere, to somewhere else | ||
| isa | together, at the same time, alternate sa | ||||
| male | again | ||||
| mea | makes a plural | ||||
| meka | till tired,for a very long time, alternate form meko |
| a | place where or whither, alternate form ang occurs after a |
| ng | added to the first of two names gives the meaning 'and', alternate form m |
| ua | denotes addition, 'and', 'with' |
Mono-Alu grammar also follows rules of gender.
The Noun
Gender of Nouns
There are to ways of indicating differences of Gender:by different words:
- e.g. Tiong : man - Betafa : woman
Fanua : men - Talaiva : women
Lalaafa : Headman - Mamaefa : Headwoman
Tua-na : his grandfather - Tete-na : his grandmother
Kanega : old man - Magota : old woman
by using an ord indicative of sex:
- e.g. Kui manuale : baby - Kui batafa : baby
Boo sule : boar - Boo tuaru : sow
In other cases, there is no distinction between masculine, feminine and neuter."
Some exceptions within the rules of Mono-Alu have been discovered.
"Two adverbs of place, instead of being written with a double consonant, are written with one only accentuated.
- e.g. 'Nai - "here"
'Nao - "there"
Instead of the aspirate 'H', the letter 'F' can be used:
in verbs preceded by the causative "Ha"
- e.g. "Fasoku" - "let come"
in verbs preceded by the prefix "Han" meaning reciprocity or duality
- e.g. "Fanua" - "mon"
"Mafa" - "I, no" "
There is no word for 'the' in the language.
The Article
There is no definite article in Alu.There is no indefinite Article as "a, an", it is replaced by the indefinite number; - "elea"."