Takuu, also known as Mortlock, is an Ellicean language spoken on Takuu Atoll near Bougainville Island. It is closely related to Nukumanu and Nukuria, spoken from Papua New Guinea to Ontong Java and Sikaiana on the Solomon Islands.
Population The Takuu language is spoken in Mortlock village on Takuu Atoll (Marqueen Islands), located off the east coast of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, approximately northeast of Kieta. The atoll consists of about 13 islands, but the majority of the population resides on a small island named Nukutoa. The islands are inhabited by approximately 400 people of Polynesian origin, referred to as "the people of Takuu" or simply Takuu. According to Ethnologue, there are about 1,750 speakers of the Takuu language.
Phonology
Consonants Takuu has eleven consonant phonemes, a typical inventory for a Polynesian language.
LabialAlveolarVelarGlottal Nasal Plosive Fricative Liquid
A phonemic length distinction exists between single and geminate (double) consonants. Geminates are typically articulated with a prolonged closure or hold phase (described by as a "delayed release"); for stops, this means the initial closure has no audible release until the articulation is completed (i.e., geminate is realised phonetically as or ). While most speakers execute this delayed release cleanly, a very small number occasionally insert a brief epenthetic vowel between the geminates (e.g., pronouncing as ). Expanded forms of geminates also frequently occur in song poetry. The voiceless labiodental fricative and lateral are currently shifting to the glottal fricative and alveolar approximant respectively, with the first change being a form of debuccalisation. For many speakers, and , as well as and , exist in free variation. Some elderly speakers insist that and represent the "correct" pronunciation, while others utilise these older forms specifically for emphasis or focus. However, these shifts only affect single consonants; geminates ( and ; described as "clusters" by ) are always retained (e.g., ). Since the 1990s, younger speakers have also systematically debuccalised the alveolar fricative to . This is likely due to imitation of the neighbouring Nukumanu language and serves as a marker of generational distinctiveness. Young women also occasionally trill their liquid approximants.
Vowels Takuu has a typical Polynesian five-vowel system, with a phonemic length distinction between short and long vowels.
FrontCentralBackHigh Mid Low
The high vowels and are realised as the glides and respectively, particularly when they precede the low back vowel , or when precedes .
Stress and prosody Takuu word structure is organised around the mora, a unit of prosodic timing in which short vowels are monomoraic and long vowels bimoraic. Word-level stress is sensitive to this distinction: primary stress typically falls on the penultimate mora-bearing vowel, while secondary stress falls on one or more preceding vowels. The presence of long vowels thus directly shifts stress placement across a word. In broader discourse, utterance-level stress supersedes word stress, creating a rhythmic succession of alternating stressed and unstressed vowels.
Words consisting of only one or two syllables are rarely cited in isolation; a minimal verbal utterance must contain at least four morae. To achieve this when citing short verbs in isolation, the preceding tense marker is lengthened and spoken with a rising inflection (e.g., , "to run"). Similarly, short nouns cited in isolation obligatorily take a definite article to satisfy these prosodic requirements.
Intonation contours also serve syntactic functions, particularly in question formation. A declarative statement can be converted into a polar question purely through a change in pitch, by applying a rising intonation to the penultimate syllable and a falling intonation to the ultimate syllable. If the utterance ends in a long vowel, the entire falling contour tone is realised within that final bimoraic syllable.
Grammar
Basic word order The basic word order in the Takuu language is subject–verb–object (SVO). In transitive sentences lacking the passive/ergative suffix, the actor precedes the verb and the patient follows it.
Articles Takuu distinguishes between definite and indefinite articles, both of which are marked for number. The definite articles are (singular) and (plural). The indefinite articles are (singular) and (plural).
In connected speech, the singular definite article frequently undergoes vowel elision when preceding a noun that begins with the alveolar stop . The loss of the vowel triggers gemination of the noun's initial consonant:
Pronouns Personal pronouns Personal pronouns distinguish three numbers (singular, dual and plural) and encode a clusivity distinction (inclusive vs. exclusive) in the first-person dual and plural forms.
+ Takuu independent personal pronouns Person Singular Dual Plural 1st exclusive 1st inclusive — 2nd 3rd
Possessive pronouns Possession in Takuu is marked by either preposed or postposed possessive pronouns. Postposed possessives function emphatically. Takuu exhibits a possessum-based split where the pronoun must agree in number with the possessed noun.
+ Preposed possessives Person Singular possessum Plural possessum 1st 2nd 3rd
This morphological number distinction is frequently used to differentiate between specific anatomical organs and general body regions:
Numerals Takuu uses a base-10 numeral system, with an explicit counting range extending from 1 to 1,000. Cardinal numerals function either as common nouns or as stative verbs, allowing them to be preceded by a tense marker. The particle is used as a conjoining marker for compound numbers, while non-compound numbers and ordinal numbers do not use this conjunction.
In formal counting, ordinal numbers are treated as common nouns, except for "first", which is indicated by the verb .
Distributive numbers are formed by attaching the prefix to the numeral (e.g., for "one each"). When counting people distributively, the prefix is added for quantities up to ten, and is used for subsequent units of ten.
The language employs distinct sets of counting paradigms depending on the noun class being quantified, with specific paradigms for counting currency, items and units of length, as illustrated below:
Number Cardinals Units of money (10 toea) Net mesh Coconuts, stones (units of two) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 — 30 — 40 — 50 — 60 — 70 — 80 — — 90 — — 100 — — 500 — — 1000 — —
Number Fish Units of rope (fathoms) Units of wood Humans Canoes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 — 30 — 40 — 50 — 60 — 70 — 80 — 90 — 100 — — 200 — — — 300 — — — — 400 — — — — 500 — — — — 600 — — — — 700 — — — — 800 — — — — 900 — — — — 1000 —
Verbal morphology The suffix Takuu employs a highly productive verbal suffix, represented morphophonemically as -Cia (where C is a thematic consonant dictated by the verb root). Depending on the syntactic context, it derives transitive verbs and functions as a passive or ergative marker. When applied to an active verb, the sentence shifts to a patient-initial word order, with the agent (if expressed) introduced by the particles or .
The suffix surfaces in various allomorphs depending on the verb root, which are -a, -hia, -ia, -ina, -kia, -lia, -mia, -nia, -ria, -sia and -tia.
Causative The prefix is a highly productive causative marker. It primarily derives transitive causative verbs from stative verbs, but can also derive verbs from nouns or create similative verbs (indicating an action done in the manner of the root).
Before most verb roots beginning with , the prefix is shortened to , and before some roots beginning with , it becomes :
Reciprocal The prefix is attached to verbs to indicate plurality of participants, specifically coding either reciprocal action or simultaneous joint action.
Reduplication Takuu makes extensive use of reduplication, primarily in verbs, to mark repeated or ongoing action.
Most verbs agree in number with plural subjects by reduplicating the first syllable of the root. When the first syllable is reduplicated, the vowel is typically omitted, forming an initial geminate consonant; however, among older speakers, the full syllable reduplication is retained. Full syllable reduplication is also routinely retained in singing to achieve a predetermined number of syllables in a poetic line. The basic patterns for plural reduplication are as follows:
Singular Plural Gloss "to dig" "to serve drinks" "to split in half"
When the initial consonant is , it changes to in the plural form:
Singular Plural Gloss "to break" "to fold" "to shift" "to swallow" "to overturn"
When a verb begins with a vowel, a geminate consonant is formed from the following consonant:
Singular Plural Gloss "to know" "to sink"
Verbs with three syllables beginning with a consonant and having as the second consonant mark the plural by changing to :
Singular Plural Gloss "to push" "to call out"
In verbs with an initial , that consonant changes to :
Singular Plural Gloss "to protect" "to find"
Reduplication also occurs in sentences to serve as a marker of quantity where the verb action relates to multiple available subjects or objects:
Particles Takuu employs two main classes of particles: pre-verbal tense–aspect markers and post-verbal directional particles.
Tense and aspect Verbal sentences in Takuu typically begin with a pre-verbal tense–aspect marker. Takuu utilises five primary markers, some of which carry evidential distinctions based on the speaker's firsthand observation:
Marker Gloss Description Immediate future Indicates an action about to happen, or an action occurring immediately following another. Perfective Indicates a recently completed action or change of state specifically observed by the speaker. Completed/Habitual/Stative Indicates no change of state, a habitual action, or an event where the speaker arrived after the outcome occurred. Durative/Past Indicates an event or condition completed in the past. Progressive Indicates a continuing state or an activity still in progress.
There is a clear distinction between (perfective) and as evidential markers. For example:
Directional particles As is characteristic of Oceanic languages, Takuu utilises post-verbal directional particles to specify the spatial trajectory of an action. These are frequently used for both literal geographic movement and conceptual motion.
Particle Direction away from the speaker towards the speaker downwards, seawards (towards the ocean) or towards the speaker from a distant location upwards, laterally across the speaker's line of sight or a command directed at a third party
Vocabulary
Indigenous vocabulary As a member of the Ellicean branch, the core indigenous vocabulary of Takuu is inherited directly from the Proto-Polynesian language, while having undergone characteristic sound changes typical of the Polynesian Outlier languages. sennit → severe → shade → to sell → water (fresh) → wavy / corrugated → way / path →
Borrowed vocabulary The language has integrated numerous borrowings, primarily from English and Tok Pisin, adapting them to Takuu phonotactics. boat / rowboat → (from English boat) bucket → (from English bucket) cat → (from English pussy) cook → (from English cook) cotton wool → (from English cotton) glass / mirror → (from English glass) kerosene → (from English kerosene) old person → (from Tok Pisin ) school → (from English school) ship → (from English steamer) store → (from English store) war → (from English war)
Comparative vocabulary TakuuSamoanTokelauanRarotonganMāoriHawaiianskynorth windwomanhouseparentmother, father, , , , canoe,
Endangerment