Lau language (Malaita)

Lau, also known as Mala, is an Oceanic language spoken on northeast Malaita, in the Solomon Islands. In 1999, Lau had about 16,937 first-language speakers, with many second-language speakers through Malaitan communities in the Solomon Islands, especially in Honiara.

Phonology Consonants Lau distinguishes voiced and voiceless stops and has a separate series of labial-velar phonemes distinct from the regular velars. The complete consonant inventory is presented in the table below (with orthographical conventions in angled brackets). The is a trilled apical rhotic.

Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal Nasals () Stops Fricatives Liquids , Glides

is realised as among northern Lau speakers, and as among southern Lau speakers.

Vowels The vowel inventory of five items is presented in the table below. These vowels can be long or short depending on the word. Long vowels are orthographically represented by doubling the vowel. The phonotactics do not allow closed syllables, i.e. every word ends with a vowel.

front central back close mid open

Grammar Morphology Articles and numeral classifiers Lau employs a variety of articles depending on definiteness, number and shape. outlines the basic articles as follows: : Denotes "the" and is used with nouns both in the singular and in the plural. : Less definite, denoting "a, a part, a piece, any". , , , , and : Function as additional unit articles.

revises this system by explicitly classifying articles by definiteness and number: : Classified as the definite article. : Classified as the singular indefinite article. : Classified as the plural indefinite article.

Sheppard also removes shape-based modifiers from the article category, placing them into a new class of numeral classifiers that follow cardinal numbers. These classifiers include: : Used for round or cyclical objects, including cyclical units of time (e.g., 'a star'). : Used for entities extended in space and time. : A partitive classifier used to indicate a portion of an entity or a diminutive reading. : Used specifically with varieties of small fish and lobster.

Several particles serve plurality and personal marking: : Primarily marks plurality by following the noun. Sheppard reclassifies as a plural enclitic () that attaches to the element immediately preceding any postnominal particles within the noun phrase. : A prefix marking reciprocity of relationship. : Used for the plural of persons, often preceding the noun. and : Personal articles used with proper names and some human nouns. is for males and for females, a distinction Sheppard explicitly links to the gender of the referent.

Nouns Nouns in Lau are categorised broadly by their ability to take possessive suffixes. Noun derivations and forms include: Inalienable possession Nouns denoting parts of the body (e.g., 'hand'), positional relationships (e.g., 'behind') and certain terms of relationship (e.g., 'brother') take direct pronominal suffixes to express inalienable possession. For example, 'hand' takes the first-person singular suffix to form 'my hand'. Verbal nouns Derived from verbs using the terminations , , , , and . For instance, 'to die' becomes 'sickness, death' and 'to bear children' becomes 'family'. further clarifies that nouns derived with the nominalising enclitic can function as the head of directly possessed noun phrases, using a short form . Ordinals and kinship The termination is attached to specific nouns expressing kinship and to cardinal numbers to derive ordinals. Construct forms Created by adding the genitive to the first of two adjacent nouns, sometimes triggering vowel contraction (e.g., + > 'a log').

Pronouns and subject marking colspan="2" rowspan="2" independent subject suffixed object suffixed possessive 1st singular , , 2nd singular , 3rd singular , , 1st plural , , , , 2nd plural , , 3rd plural , , ,

Pronouns function independently as subjects, or are suffixed to verbs and prepositions as objects and to inalienable nouns as possessives. The longer independent forms (prefixed with ) are used alongside their shorter counterparts for emphasis.

Lau also possesses dual forms (e.g., , ) and a restricted plural denoted by a suffix across plural forms (e.g., , ).

When expressing possession for alienable objects or food, an independent possessive marker is used (e.g., , , ).

substantially revises the grammatical framework laid out by , reanalysing what were previously termed "temporal verbal particles" (such as and ) as a complex paradigm of subject markers. These markers index the number and person of the subject and are divided into "activated" and "non-activated" paradigms, tracking referents in discourse based on their current prominence and the sequential flow of events.

Verbs Almost any word in Lau can function as a verb when preceded by a verbal particle. The primary temporal particles are: : Signifies present or future time. : Denotes present or future time but occurs exclusively alongside the second-person singular pronoun . : Generally denotes a future and is used strictly with the illative or negative .

supplements this by classifying verbs by valence into four groups: Verb class 1 2 3 4 Valence type Intransitive Transitive Labile

Verbs also employ several morphological markers to express valency: Transitivity Verbs become explicitly transitive through the addition of a consonant + suffix (e.g., , , , , , ) or simply . Alternatively, the termination can be suffixed to verbs and the syllable may be added to form , where is any of the optional consonants , , or . Sheppard revises the morphological analysis of the long transitive suffixes; rather than being segmented as followed by an independent pronoun (e.g., ), Sheppard argues the underlying structure is the transitive suffix followed by the bound object suffix (e.g., ). Causation The prefix is used to derive causative verbs. Reciprocity The prefix marks reciprocals.

describes negation as expressed through the particles and , with also serving as the dehortative and negative imperative. Sheppard revises this structure, identifying three distinct negative elements: : The negative verb. : The negative enclitic. : The prohibitive particle.

Adjectives and adverbs Adjectival concepts are typically expressed through words functioning as stative verbs, which generally occur postnominally. True adjectives, however, belong to a small closed class or carry specific morphological markers.

outlines adjectives formed through morphological derivation: Suffixes: Nouns and verbs can take the suffixes and to become adjectives (e.g., 'night' > 'belonging to darkness'). Prefixes: Adjectival prefixes include (forming participles, as in 'to loose' > 'loosened'), (denoting condition, as in 'spilt') and (spontaneity, as in 'head over heels').

identifies a heterogeneous group of four true adjectives that are neither nouns nor verbs: / ('small'), ('female head of family'), ('old, respected') and ('pagan'). Three of these occur prenominally, while occurs postnominally. The adjective for 'small' is notable for having distinct singular () and plural () forms that occupy different structural slots within the noun phrase; the singular form follows a classifier, whereas the plural form precedes both classifiers and common definite articles.

Adverbs are categorised by place, time and manner, often deriving directly from nouns, verbs or adjectives (e.g., 'hither', 'today', 'like/as').

Prepositions Lau's prepositional system is extensive, covering location, motion, dative, causation and instrumental relations. Prepositions govern nouns by attaching anticipatory object suffixes in agreement with the complement object (e.g., 'concerning it'). The locative preposition generally precedes spatial adverbs and place names.

introduces a systematic classification based on how prepositions cross-reference their objects:

Type Description Examples Simple Takes no suffix. , Verbal Takes the verbal object suffix. , Nominal Takes possessive pronominal suffixes. , Comitative Indexes its complement using a form identical to the third-person independent pronoun .

Demonstratives identifies a demonstrative framework encoding spatial proximity and discourse status: Speaker proximate: . Addressee proximate: and . Distal: (singular) and (plural). Anaphoric: , used as a referent tracking device for shared or "given" information.

Numerals Lau employs a decimal (base-ten) counting system. In composition and quick counting, the initial prefix is commonly dropped from the cardinal root.

Number Lau 1 , , , , 2 , , 3 4 5

Number Lau 6 7 8 9 10 ,

Ordinals are derived by attaching the termination to the cardinal, though exceptions exist where is suffixed directly (e.g., 'third', 'eighth'). Single digits are connected to multiples of ten using the conjunction (e.g., 'fourteen').

Syntax The basic Lau clause structure is organised around five ordered domains:

left periphery > subject field > verbal complex > object field > right periphery

In the following example, 'people' is a noun phrase in the subject field. The pronoun acts as a co-indexed subject pronoun directly followed by the sequential/tense marker . The head of the predicate is the intransitive verb 'shout':

confirms the basic SVO clause structure but notes that subject and object marking within the verb complex is not strictly obligatory. Null-marking frequently occurs when referents can be understood from the discourse context.

Wordlist

+ A sample wordlistLauEnglishnoteswane (bai'ta)man bai'ta = 'big, adult'hai (bai'ta)womanwelachild wela waneboywela genigirlgala wela = wela to'ousmall childgala = to'ou = 'small'u'bongia good morningrodolea = rod'lea = rodo good nighthau'lafiagood eveningoe uta?how are you?oe = 2sg ('you')nau diana gwa'guI'm goodnau = 1sg ('I')

Sample text God Save the King, from an Anglican translation published in 1945.Na Book Fooalaa. Portions of the Book of Common Prayer published by the Melanesian Mission Press, 1945.

Notes and references Notes

Citations

Bibliography

Lau language (Malaita)

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