North Efate language


North Efate, also known as Nakanamanga or Nguna, is an Oceanic language spoken on the northern area of Efate in Vanuatu, as well as on a number of islands off the northern coast. Efate Island is an island in the center of Vanuatu, where North Efate subsists of a region that encompasses the regions bordered by Tuktuk Point in the South and Samoan point in the north. The influx of missionaries was characteristic of a change in indigenous perspectives where much of the traditions were destroyed or altered. Vanuatu has some of the highest language densities in the world. The population of speakers is recorded to be 9,500.

Location

Shefa Province, north Efate island, Nguna, Tongoa, and several smaller islands, southeast

Phonology

The consonant and vowels sounds of North Efate.
FrontCentralBack
High
Mid
Low

Subdialects of North Efate include:
Typology follows Subject Object Verb order as is observed in Nguna

Verbs and Verb Classes

Verbs are prefixed with other stems that enable them to be differentiated at the morphological level
Two types of Intransitive Verbs:
A Verbs: Actor Subject
U Verbs: Experiencer Subject

Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verb accessorize main verbs in a pre-verbal complex

Pi

The word pi can introduce a predicate nominal or adjective
Ex: mai | pi |afsak
come | be | turtle
Translation: "Then she became a turtle", in this case the predicate nominal "turtle" is introduced by the "pi"
Ex: mai | pi | boring a
come | be | boring
Translation: "It got boring", in this case the adjective, boring, describing the situation is also introduced by the "pi"
This pi also serves as an designation for equative structures that discern the identity of two entities
Ex: nmatu | nen | pi | nmatu | ni | nafet | ofisa
woman | that | be | woman | of | group | officer
Translation: "Those women are the wives of all the officers", where the women are also being ascribed the identity of wives
Words like pi serve as existentials, where they serve a presentative function, announcing novel information into the conversation, while also notifying existence of its deignee

Pato

The word "pato" signifies the location of a subject
Ex: pato | Kwinsland | to | namtu | ga | kin | Jeanie
Translation: "He was in Queensland, his wife was Jeanie", note how the pato denotes the location of the subject in Queensland, like a general designation of place

me

This word is a conjunction that can serve to oppose separate clauses like the word "but" or establish a connection to them like the word "and".
Ex: Spray | traem | wou | ki | me | malkio
Spray | try | tell | PREP | but | not want
Translation: "They tried to get me to use spray, but I didn't want to", notice how the meaning of the "me" is determined by the opposition generated by the last part "not want" which goes against the grain of the sentence effectively signifying the meaning of me as "but"
Ex: Tete | tae | me | tete | tap | tae | mau
Some | know | but | some | NEG | know
Translation: "Some know, but some don't know", again, we see how the "me" is separating the two clauses and signifying an opposition between them because of the negative
Ex: Nlaken| kai | sain | reki | army | nafkal | me | pa
Because| sign | for | army | fight | and | go
Translation: " Because I had signed with the army to fight and then I went". The adherence of the clauses effectively changes the meaning of the "me" in this sentence, since there are no lexical markers signifying opposition of what the clauses are trying to present. Thus me serves to conjoin both the clauses. From this, one can see that the meaning of "me" is largely driven by the context of the words around it.

Other Grammatical Details

Interrogative Intonation

Intonation plays a crucial role in defining a phrase as interrogative, in this case, a characteristic rise and subsequent fall is observed in the last word

Tags

Tags accessorize a sentence to add data to the question, often accompanied by the proper intonation cues.

ko

Serving the purpose as "or", and goes to express that the opposite of the phrase or phenomena it follows could in fact be the reality
Ex: lakor | lek | na- map | ko
maybe | look | map | or
Translation: "You might have seen a map, or what?

eh

Serving the purpose as "isn't it", and this word serves as a request a repeat of the information. Note, it can be used independently and carries meaning in and of itself. Often in conversation it used by a party seeking clarification on a certain point

Go

The Efate word 'go' is analogous to the English 'and' in that it connects two clauses
Ex: taos | apap | nigmam | go | mama | nigmam | pak | talmat.
follow | father | 1p.POS |and | mother |1p.POS | to | garden
Translation: We then followed our father and our mother to the garden

Na

Na is a purposive word that indicates the purpose of an action
Ex: totan | na | fam
sit | PURP | eat
Translation: You sit in order to eat

Clauses

The order of clauses is SVO. A sentence consists most basically of a verb stem with a subject.