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LIG:ligature IMPF:imperfective DL:dual CSTR: CONS:construct suffix

Mavea
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Mavea Island
Native speakers	34 (2008)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic North-Central Vanuatu North Vanuatu Espiritu Santo Mavea
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mkv
Glottolog	mafe1237
ELP	Mavea
Mav̋ea is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Mavea (also rendered Mav̋ea, Mafea or Mavia) is an Oceanic language spoken on Mavea Island in Vanuatu, off the eastern coast of Espiritu Santo. It belongs to the North–Central Vanuatu linkage of Southern Oceanic. The total population of the island is approximately 172, with only 34 fluent speakers of the Mavea language reported in 2008.

There are 94 languages in the North Vanuatu linkage, including Mavea. The closest linguistic relative to Mavea, sharing a little over 70% of cognates, is Tutuba. Following Tutuba, Aore, South Malok, Araki, and Tangoa are the next closest relatives.

Language endangerment

Mavea is a moribund language and there are many factors as to why this is.

One factor would be the arrival and Christianization by the Seventh-day Adventist and Church of Christ missionaries in 1839. Only 16% of the population can speak Mavea. These native speakers of Mavea belong to Generation 1, 2, and 3 which ranges from the ages of 20–80 years old. Those born after 1980 ("Generation 4") are less fluent. Commonly, this generation is not taught the language, because the language is inactive and not used in any new domain.

Mavea is not used very commonly outside of the home; in particular, it is not used in school, which reduces the younger speakers' exposure to the language. Most speakers do not feel concerned with the possible loss of the Mavea language.

Bislama, the national lingua franca of Vanuatu, is used more frequently. This creole is the first language for many people in Vanuatu who live in the city. It is used for business, religious sacraments, politics, and is seen as a way to move upward in society.

Phonology

Mavea has 15 consonants and 8 vowels.

Plosives in Mavea are not aspirated.

Orthography

Linguolabial consonants are represented using the corresponding labial consonant with a double acute accent on top: p̋ ; v̋ ; m̋ . (This is a slight variation compared with the convention, shared by other Vanuatu languages, of transcribing linguolabials using two dots, respectively as p̈; v̈; m̈.)

The retroflex is represented in the orthography as d.

Grammar

Pronouns

There are both free and bound pronouns. Free pronouns are common in many Pacific languages. These free pronouns do not change for gender, but shows numerical differences, including singular, plural, dual, or paucal.

For example:

• /mo/ = he/she/it (third person singular subject)
• He eats taro. = /mo-an pete/

Proper nouns

Proper nouns includes personal names, vocatives, relational terms, and locatives. They do not proceed an article and can not be used with a determiner. To show gender distinction, males use the prefix /mol-/. For females, the prefix /vo-/ or /va-/ was added.

Common nouns

Similar to the proper nouns, there are both bound and free common nouns. Both can be used in an argument, be quantified with a marker, be modified with a determiner, be the head of a relative clause, and be questioned with "who" or "what". Bound common nouns are separated into nouns of kinship, body parts, bodily functions, and whole part relations. Also shows possessives.

Verbs

Verbal predicates are marked with a subject agreement prefix. There are intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, ambitransitive, ditransitive, and auxiliary.

Intransitive verbs are used when the subject has no direct object receiving the action.

Adverbs

There are two kinds of adverbs: phrasal adverbs and sentential adverbs. Sententail adverbs take up the entire sentence and appear after or before the verb's core argument. For example: to show frequency, /te pong/ meaning "sometimes" is used as a sentential adverb.

Spatial adverbs are used to show the location of the speaker and the direction the speaker is speaking towards. For example: konaro means "here, at speaker's location." This is common in many Pacific languages.

Reduplication

Mavea shows partial reduplication in its grammar. Reduplication is used to show emphasis. For example: sua means "to paddle" and suosua means "to paddle intensely". Sometimes when using reduplication, the vowels can change. Usually the "a" changes to "o" or "e".

Adjectives

Adjectives can only be used as noun modifiers. There both adjectives as independent lexical items and also adjectives pulled from transitive verbs by using reduplication. For example: pulua is "paint" and "ima pulpulu" means "painted house".

Prepositions

There are seven prepositions in Mavea.

Demonstratives

Pronouns

There are four attested demonstrative pronouns in Mavea: aro, nel(e), maro, and male. Aro and nel(e) can also function as demonstrative determiners, and aro specifically only rarely appears as a pronoun, as in:

Mo-ṽe

3SG-make

mo-pal

3SG-like

aro

here

3SG-bent

Mo-ṽe mo-pal aro

3SG-make 3SG-like here COMP 3SG-bent

'He makes (it) like this one here that is bent'

Maro ('this one') is used to refer to something nearby the speaker, and has the plural form maror, which is formed by affixing the plural suffix -re:

Or

maybe

me

FUT

ro

then

ka-var

1SG.IRR-talk

sur

about

maro

this.one

ma

COMP

matua=ku

right=1SG.POSS

mo-adia

3SG-first

Or me ro ka-var sur maro ma matua=ku mo-adia

maybe FUT then 1SG.IRR-talk about this.one COMP right=1SG.POSS 3SG-first

'Maybe I will talk about this one that (is) on my right first'

Ma

COMP

pula-ira

CLF-3PL

maror

these.ones

i

LIG

ṽat.

four

Ma pula-ira maror i ṽat.

COMP CLF-3PL these.ones LIG four

'(The ones) that (are) theirs (are) these four ones.'

Male ('that one') on the other hand is used when speaking of something that is distant to the speaker, both literally, as in

Male

that.one

m̃atan

COMP

me

FUT

ra-lsu

3PL-hit

mate=i=o

dead=TR=2SG

Male m̃atan me ra-lsu mate=i=o

that.one COMP FUT 3PL-hit dead=TR=2SG

'That one (was) for the purpose that they would kill you'

And metaphorically, in order to distance the speaker from the referent, as in

Na

but

vatavata

woman

le

DET

mo-pelmel

3SG-like.this

paingur,

stubborn

male

that.one

me

FUT

i-l-ṽe

3SG.IRR-IMPF-make

Tomy

Tomy

pelmel

like.this

Na vatavata le mo-pelmel paingur, male me i-l-ṽe Tomy pelmel

but woman DET 3SG-like.this stubborn that.one FUT 3SG.IRR-IMPF-make Tomy like.this

'But this woman is stubborn like this, that one will be making Tomy the same'

Malere is the plural form of male, and like maror is formed by affixing the plural -re:

Malere

these.ones

da-sops-varvara

1PL.INCL-NEG-talk

nira.

3PL

Malere da-sops-varvara nira.

these.ones 1PL.INCL-NEG-talk 3PL

'These ones, we don't talk to them.'

Maro and male are both formed by combining the complementizer ma- and a locative adverbial; aro for the former, and ale for the latter.

Determiners

In addition to demonstrative pronouns, Mavea also has three demonstrative determiners: nele, (a)ro, and nor(o), although of these only nor(o) is not attested as a pronoun in addition to its role as a demonstrative determiner.

The three-way demonstrative system common to Oceanic Languages is not present in Mavean demonstrative determiners, occurring instead in the locative adverbs of the language. The demonstrative determiners of Mavea encode both spatial and temporal proximity to either the speaker, as in  

Ki-r-m̃a

1PL.EXCL-DL-come

aro

this.here

Mav̋ea.

Mav̋ea

Ki-r-m̃a aro Mav̋ea.

1PL.EXCL-DL-come this.here Mav̋ea

'We came here, (to) Mav̋ea.'

or to the discourse, as in

Rau=n

leaves=3SG.POSS

mo-sa

3SG-go.up

mo-avtai

3SG-appear

nor

here.now

aulu.

above

Rau=n mo-sa mo-avtai nor aulu.

leaves=3SG.POSS 3SG-go.up 3SG-appear here.now above

'Its leaves go up and appear here on top.'

The plural forms neler(e), ror, and noror are formed by affixing what is likely a reduced form of the plural word re.

Nele, along with its plural form neler(e), is formed in part by the specific definite article le.

Nor(o), and its plural form noror, is actually made up in part by a cut down form of the third demonstrative determiner, (a)ro, while nele is not. Interestingly, the two demonstrative determiners which contain aro, that is nor(o) and (a)ro itself, are also the two demonstrative determiners which serve double duty as demonstrative pronouns, in addition to being used as locational adverbs, a function never assigned to nel(e)(re).

Additionally, one of the other demonstrative pronouns, maro, also has aro as one of its constituents.

Demonstrative determiners can refer to a location in both time and space, but the spatial location is often discourse-related, rather than speaker-related, as in the following example, where aro is used to refer anaphorically to a party (anana) that has previously been mentioned in the text:

Re

PL

m̃asi

bird.fish

nirev

everyone

ra-ṽa

3PL-go

na

LOC

anan-a

eat-NMZ

aro.

here

Re m̃asi nirev ra-ṽa na anan-a aro.

PL bird.fish everyone 3PL-go LOC eat-NMZ here

'All the birds went to this party.'

This use is sometimes called the "tracking use". Ror, nor(o)(r), and nelere all also have anaphoric uses, as displayed in the following examples, where the noun phrase referents occurring prior to the demonstrative have each been mentioned previously:

Ro

then

me

FUT

ro

then

tamlese

old

ror

here.PL

i

LIG

rua…

two

Ro me ro tamlese ror i rua…

then FUT then old here.PL LIG two

'Then, these two men here…'

Ra-l-an

3PL-IMPF-eat

ineler

thing.PL

nelere

these.PL

Ra-l-an ineler nelere

3PL-IMPF-eat thing.PL these.PL

'They are eating these things here.'

Inor

thing.PL

nor

here.now

me

FUT

i-tuen

3SG.IRR-help

nno

2SG

Inor nor me i-tuen nno

thing.PL here.now FUT 3SG.IRR-help 2SG

'These things here will help you.'

The demonstrative determiners of Mavea follow the head noun when used adnominally, a pattern which is the norm in oceanic languages, though by no means universal. Examples of this include:

Tam̃a-n

father-CONS

navaisesea

child

aro

this.here

mo-m̃ata.

3SG-dead

Tam̃a-n navaisesea aro mo-m̃ata.

father-CONS child this.here 3SG-dead

'The father of this child here is dead.'

Ra-l-an

3PL-IMPF-eat

ineler

thing.PL

nelere.

these.PL

Ra-l-an ineler nelere.

3PL-IMPF-eat thing.PL these.PL

'They are eating these things here.'

Spatial deictics

Locative adverbs

Locative adverbs are a class of sentential adverb, modifying entire sentences, and as such occur either subsequent to the verb's core argument, as shown in:

Ra-kuro

3PL-leave

koneine

there

'Ai

ai

sar'

sar

ro

then

ra-sa

3PL-go.up

konain

there

'Panpan.'

panpan

Ra-kuro koneine 'Ai sar' ro ra-sa konain 'Panpan.'

3PL-leave there ai sar then 3PL-go.up there panpan

'They left there, 'Ai sar', then they went up there, 'Panpan'.

Or more rarely prior to the verb's core argument, as shown in:

Ṽisio-n

meat=3SG.POSS

maro

this.one

mo-an

3SG-eat

nna.

3SG

Ṽisio-n maro mo-an nna.

meat=3SG.POSS this.one 3SG-eat 3SG

'His flesh, this one ate it.'

There are two sets of locative adverbs in Mavea, all members of which serve as spatial deictics. There is the A-set, so named because all of its members begin with , and the K-set, so named because each of its members begins with . They form a six-way system based on proximity to the hearer, and to the speaker, as well as relative direction (up, down, or across)

Atisi(vo), atisa, and atiṽa, as well as their K-set equivalents konatisi(vo), konatisa, and konatiṽa, are likely derived from the form atu (or konatu for the K-set), compounded with a movement verb like si(vo) ('go down'), sa ('go up'), or ṽa ('go'):

Nno

2SG

ko-to

2SG-stay

aro

here

nao

1SG

ka-on

1SG.IRR-look

ka-ṽa

1SG.IRR-go

konatiṽa.

over.there

Ka-val

1SG.IRR-pass

kil

look

ṽa

go

na

LOC

vovono

REDbush

konatu.

over.there

Nno ko-to aro nao ka-on ka-ṽa konatiṽa. Ka-val kil ṽa na vovono konatu.

2SG 2SG-stay here 1SG 1SG.IRR-look 1SG.IRR-go over.there 1SG.IRR-pass look go LOC REDbush over.there

'You stay here, I will go look over there. I will pass towards the bush over there.'

Ra-kuro

3PL-leave

koneine

there

'Ai

ai

sar'

sar

ro

then

ra-sa

3PL-go.up

konain

there

'Panpan.'

panpan

Ra-kuro koneine 'Ai sar' ro ra-sa konain 'Panpan.'

3PL-leave there ai sar then 3PL-go.up there panpan

'They left there, 'Ai sar', then they went up there, 'Panpan'.'

'Soon after I felt something touching my leg here.'

Speakers can emphasise the distance in the forms atisi(vo), atisa, and atiṽa, as well as their K-set forms konatisi(vo), konatisa, and konatiṽa by producing them with a long , e.g.: .

There is no easily discernible semantic difference between the A-set and the K-set, however some members of the A-set may also serve as demonstratives, as in:

Mo-ṽe

3SG-make

mo-pal

3SG-like

aro

here

.

3SG-bent

Mo-ṽe mo-pal aro .

3SG-make 3SG-like here COMP 3SG-bent

'He makes (it) like (this one) here which is bent.'