Palauan language

Spoken in

Austronesian Malayo -Polynesian Western Malayo -Polynesian Palauan

Pau

Palauan (also Belauisch ) is an Austronesian language spoken in Palau and in parts of Guam. The language has about 15,000 speakers.

3.1 sound system
3.2 consonants
3.3 vowels
3.4 word stress
3.5 According distribution
3.6 allophones
3.7 Lautkluster
3.8 reduplication
3.9 Other phonological processes

4.1 morphology 4.1.1 noun
4.1.2 pronouns
4.1.3 verbs

4.2.1 Word order
4.2.2 basic sentence types

Classification

Palauan heard within the Austronesian languages of Western Malayo -Polynesian group. It is next to the only Chamorro language of this group, which is spoken in Micronesia. In the Western Austronesian group Palauan has no close relatives and thus can be considered as a separate language within this family.

History

At about 1000 BC Palau was colonized. The since the 16th century, ever-changing occupations of the island by the Spaniards, Germans, Japanese and Americans have tried to include some loanwords hardly affected the language.

Official Status

Palauan is in addition to English the official language of the Republic of Palau and is spoken in parts of Guam, where it does not count to the officially recognized languages . Palauan has about 15,000 speakers.

Dialects and sociolects

Dialect variation is present in Palauan only to a very small extent.

Phonetics and phonology

According to system

The sound inventory of Palauan is with ten consonants and vowels six compared to other Austronesian languages (eg, Fiji: 20 consonants, vowels five ) is relatively small. In the volume distribution, there are some peculiarities.

Consonants

Vowels

The vowels of Palau have few allophones. The phoneme [ ə ] and [ e] are contrastive, that is, they can occur in the same context. Vowel length is Palauan a distinctive feature that separates words from each other. Long vowels are articulated as glides: [i: ] and [e: ] are referred to as [y ] glide spoken, [u: ] and [o: ] as [w ] glide.

Word accent

The word accent is words without suffix generally on the penultimate. There are a small number of unstressed monosyllabic words, eg chad [ ʔað ] ' person '. In suffixed forms of the word accent shifts to the suffix.

According distribution

Although Palauan a voiced bilabial sound / b / has, the voiceless counterpart / p / does not exist. By criteria of markedness approach this is unusual: / p / is unmarked as / b / and therefore the more to be expected volume. In fact, if one of these sounds, so it should be the / b / be. The absence of the voiceless bilabial plosive can but by the sound changes from Proto - Austronesian ( PAN) / * p / to Palauan / w / are explained. PAN / * b /, however, has not changed and remains in Palauan get as / b /.

Even with nasals lack the segment less marked: there is / ŋ /, but not / s /. This gap in the sound system is explained by the volume change of PAN / * n / to Palauan / l /. The few examples of [n ] are by Flora (1974 ) allophones of underlying / ŋ /.

Allophones

The Lateral, the tap, the fricative and the glottal plosive have no allophones in Palau. Also with the other phonemes there are only minor allophonic variation. The dental plosive / d / has the allophones d, ð, t, θ ] that occur depending on the surrounding sounds at the beginning and end of word and depending on the speech speed. The velar plosive / k / is between two vowels voiced ( eg ngikei [ ngigəi ] ' fish '). At the end of the word the dental and velar plosives are aspirated: DAKT [ Dact ʰ ] ' fear '. The nasal / ŋ / is dental, when he stands before t, d, s, r, and before loanwords from Japanese or English. In all other contexts it is articulated velar.

Lautkluster

Palauan leaves some unusual Konsonantenkluster to (combinations of consonants ). In part, these clusters have formed by historical omission of vowels. Word initial example, there are the following clusters: / kp? P, pk, km, Pn /; word- final clusters may look like this: / tp, kp pO, , md, bl /, eg kbokb [ kpokp ] ' wall '. Impossible Konsonantenkluster are combinations of dentals and / l / and any combinations with the glottal plosive / ʔ /. Also Vokalkluster occur in Palau to frequently. In Vokalklustern gets one of the vowels of the cluster the word accent, although it may happen in some cases that both vowel is unstressed, eg eanged [ yaŋəð ] ' sky ', sechelei [ səʔəlεy ] ' friend '

Reduplication

There are two types of reduplication, which are particularly productive in Palau. Type I is a Stammreduplikation, but leave out the segment on the right. Type II is a Ca - reduplication, which copies the initial consonant of the word tribe and as the default vowel / e / appends. Type II reduplication can also operate on already reduplicated by type I strains, type I- reduplication, however, can only be applied to unreduplizierten tribes. The repeated reduplication the meaning is not changed further. The reduplicated forms are also subject to a number of phonological processes, including Vowel reduction or shifting of word stress. A detailed analysis of this is Flora (1974).

Reduplication can operate in Palau to nouns and verbs, but it is in the present-day language only verbs productively. In principle, both state and action verbs can be reduplicated. However, it is not possible to predict whether a strain is reduplicated or not.

Nominal reduplication: Chatu ' smoke '> chetechat 'fog'

Verbal reduplication:

Change the meaning of words by reduplication: In general, the replication causes a slowdown in the meaning of words, in a few words, an enhanced significance. There is a group of state verbs that contain the resulting Zustandsinfix -e- as well as the anticipatory Zustandssuffix -e and change their meaning in a rather unusual way: the reduplicated verbs refer to states that are caused by incomplete or inadequate execution of a task, ' cleaned ' eg ngeltachel is ' cleaned superficially ' by reduplication to ngengeltachel. With reciprocal verbs reduplication is optional and also causes for the majority of the speakers no change in meaning (cf. kedakt or kadekdakt ' fear each other ').

Other phonological processes

The Liquide can form sequences in different word positions. / r / is then the trills. Furthermore, / m, ŋ, l, r / syllabic consonants to, when they stand before other consonants at the beginning of the word. The only exception to this is the Kluster / ml / (see mlai [ Mlay ] ' canoe '). Generally, metathesis and various vowel changes frequently occurring processes.

Grammar

Palauan is one of the agglutinative languages , that is, words are mainly formed by adding affixes. The most important word classes in Palauan are nouns ( including pronouns ) and verbs that take over many functions adjective. [Note 1] The particles a forwards all nominal and verbal phrases one (but not pronouns and demonstratives ). It is independent of the syntactic function of the phrase to be introduced directly in front of the phrase. [Note 2]

Morphology

Noun

Palauan makes a clear distinction between human and non - human nouns. This comes in the person marking to the fore: human nouns form the plural with the prefix re or r, in non-human nouns there is no morphologically visible plural.

Definiteness is in Palauan by introducing the specifier he assigned nouns. In the context of human noun the specifier is mandatory [Note 3], there is no indefinite interpretation. If the specifier is missing, then the sentence is understood only with imperfective verbs as indefinite, perfective verbs always imply a specific object. In non-human, it allows a singular - plural distinction. If the specifier is used, the noun is interpreted as a specific and singular; it is omitted, the meaning is ambiguous: it may be a non-specific singular noun or to a specific noun in the plural.

Examples:

Possessive forms are the only suffixes that can be attached to nominal strains. The possessive nouns are divided into three groups: inalienabel, that is inseparable possessive nouns, possessive nouns and alien abel nouns never appear as possessive, but express the Possession of a Possessivphrase.

Inalienabel possessive noun: This group includes body parts of humans and animals, kinship relations, part-whole relationships as well as some other possessive relations ( ultil ' his footprint '). However, all words in the category are not automatically inalienabel possessive. Possessive noun phrases can be possiviert again: bkul a chimak ' my elbows '.

Alien Abel possessive noun form the largest group. This includes some loan words that have so strongly adapted to the structure of the Palau that they also allow possessive suffixes:

The last group are the nouns that do not take possessive suffixes. These are mainly loanwords in English, Japanese or other origin (eg sidosia 'Auto', RRAT ' bicycle ') as well as words Palauan origin, the animals, plants and parts of nature call ( lbolb 'wolf', chelechol ' beach '). To be associated with a Possessor, these can be integrated into a noun Possessivphrase that it contains the specifier: he sidosia a Siabal ' Japanese car '.

Morphologically, the possessive suffixes correspond with the full forms of pronouns. As with the 3rd person plural pronouns can only be used with human nouns, therefore, also acts at the suffixes, the 3rd person singular and singular and plural form for non-human nouns.

Overview of the possessive suffixes:

Depending on the stem of the noun, there are four different paradigms, each differing by the vowel of the suffix. This vowel alternation appears in all the singular forms as well as in the 1st person plural ( inclusive ). Flora (1974 ) divided the paradigms depending on the source of the vowel: the vowel can be thematically ( paradigm 1) or more rarely a stem final vowel ( paradigm 2-4), which appears only with suffixes and word- final otherwise be invisible. The emergence of the thematic vowel / e / is precisely predictable in comparison to the vowels from the other paradigms. The paradigm 1 follow some loan words like tebel ' table'.

Using the example of DAKT ' fear ':

For the noun paradigms 2-4, there are loud Flora (1974 ) underlying word final vowel whose articulation is suppressed by phonetic constraints. This analysis shows the flora so that verbs in this respect have a similar behavior. Examples of these paradigms:

Which tribes follow which of these paradigms can not be predicted. So there are examples of homophones that have different possessive forms:

Possessive subject to a number of vowel alternations. A common process is the vowel reduction that occurs in unstressed syllables. Since the word accent on the suffix shifts, the syllables of the tribe and many unstressed vowels are reduced. The exceptions are primarily nouns that contain the vowel [ i] and belonging to body parts. In extreme cases it can lead to Vowel Deletion. Other phenomena are the vowel reduction and the reduction of Vokalklustern.

Pronoun

Full forms

Pronouns occur as a separate full forms, as well as suffixes. For the full forms, a distinction between emphatic and non- emphatic pronoun:

Emphatic pronouns are always stressed the non- emphatic, however, never. What pronoun is used context- bound and inter alia depends on whether the reproduced information is new or already known. Emphatic pronouns in subject position require that the verb phrase with the word a is initiated. In coordinating noun phrases only emphatic pronouns can be used.

In subject shift the non- emphatic pronouns act as a track, that is, they are in the position in which the subject was located in front of the shift. Generally, there is no meaning by the subject shift change. In general, a set but can be understood without shifted subject that new and unexpected information is conveyed, while sentences with subject shift communicate expected information.

Pronominal affixes

Pronoun can be bound as suffixes on verbs, they operate then as object pronouns, eg cholebedak ' beats me '. This form consists of cholebed, the perfective stem of the verb quantity lebed ' hit ', and the suffixed pronoun it together.

Hypothetical pronouns are used in contexts in which actions are not actually exist but are accepted, such as prompts or suggestions. Hypothetical verb forms consist of a pronominal prefix and the verb stem. The 2nd and 3.Personen singular and plural coincide with hypothetical pronoun. Depending on the verb of each pronoun has three to seven different variants.

Verbs

Tempus: Palauan has three tenses present, past and future tense. Verbs must always tie a Verbmarker with few exceptions. This Verbmarker Georgopoulous classified as Realismarker because it does not occur, for example, in the hypothetical verb forms. The Verbmarker can be a prefix, for example, me- in mesuub ' learn ', or as an infix - m- in Smecher ' be sick '. If the verb stem begins with b, dissimilated me- to o-, in addition use some other verbs o-, for example oker ' ask '.

Aspect: perfective - imperfective A distinction is made only for transitive verbs. Imperfective verbs consist of three morphemes: the Verbmarker, the Imperfektivmarker and the verb stem. Perfective verbs are composed of the Verbmarker, the verb root and the object pronouns.

Person: The person seems to be marked only on verbs that affigierte bind pronouns (eg perfective verbs).

Nominalderivation: The prefix kl (s) - is usually bound to a simple state verbs, but can also operate on complex verbs, such as to reciprocal verbs, kasoes ' see each other ' will ' have a relationship with each other ' by the prefix to klasoes. The prefix can also be bound to nouns then get a more abstract meaning: klengalek 'Childhood' by ngalek 'child'.

Verb types: The Palauische has a variety of verb types, one of which is the largest and most important group of transitive action verbs.

State verbs can consist of bound or free tribes. State verbs have two different past tenses with distinct meanings: either they use the auxiliary mle ' was ' or the infix -il. Verbs with -il- behave as action verbs or events. Many verbs can be used simultaneously both past marker, but this results with few exceptions, not in a distinct meaning.

Causative verbs have prefixes ome (k ) - and ol ( e) -. The resulting Kausativpräfixe by the verb is always transitive. Causative verbs have imperfective, perfective and hypothetical forms. Some causative verbs with ome (k ) - can be derived from nouns, then call an action in which the noun is involved: bar ' ceiling ' is to omekbar ' cover something / jmd with a blanket '. There are a small number of verb stems, which can be bound with two Kausativpräfixen. This leads to a differentiated meaning, which often involves the intentionality of an action.

Reciprocal verbs describe two persons exercising an effect on each other, the subject is in this construction always in the plural. The verbs are formed with the prefixes kai, kau, kaiue, ke, ka, cha and the trunk of a transitive action, or more rarely a Zustandsverbs, olengeseu ' help ' for example, is the reciprocal verb kaingeseu ' help each other '. Reciprocal verbs behave like state verbs, their past tense is formed with the auxiliary verb mle. If verbs allow Kausativform, can be calculated from these mostly the shape of the reciprocal verb derived.

Directional verbs: Most important in this group, the three verbs mo ' go ' eko ' go ' and me ' come '. Eko is very specific: it describes movement of the speaker or a third party to the assumed current, past, or future location of the person addressed. Mo is not as severely limited in its meaning: it refers to movement of anybody away from the place of the speaker and the listener. A few verbs can only occur after directional verbs, for example mo merek ' quit '. Flexed while only the directional verb is the past tense forms of mo and me are formed m- by inserting the word initial infix - l - after; is the infix -il- the prefix for eko.

Syntax

Word order

When asked about the word order of Palau, the linguists disagree. Joseph (1975 ) argues for the sequence of subject-verb - object; the detriment of his theory is that almost every sentence after several phrase movements corresponds to the actual output. In addition, Joseph's many phenomena can not be explained by the word order proposed by him. Waters (1980 ) therefore proposes that the underlying position verb - object-subject, arguing that Joseph's (1975 ) passive structure is actually a topicalization. This structure is also ultimately responsible for the frequent Erststellung of the subject.

Basic sentence types

DC actuator end sets do not require a verb

Transitive and intransitive sentences:

Imperfective and perfective sentences:

Interrogative sentences:

Negation:

Font

Alphabet includes the letters a, b, CH ( the glottal plosive ), d, e, i, k, l, m, ng ( velar the nasal), o, r, s, t and u

Long vowels are - with the exception of a - represented by double letters; the same applies to sequences of r and l

Research

The first grammar of Palau was created during the German rule on Palau. This work by the Roman Catholic Bishop Walleser (1911 ) used to linguists in the 1980s as a reference for their work on Palauan.

Among the more recent work on the Palauan reference grammar of Joseph's is the most detailed description of Palau, though Joseph's analysis of the syntax is too superficial and thus flawed. In addition, there are many work on phonetic processes in Palauan and the morphology and syntax. A detailed list of the work to Palauan can be found in the web links.

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