Neve'ei language

Neve’ei
Vinmavis
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Central Malekula
Ethnicity	spoken by 70% (no date)[1]
Native speakers	500 (2007)[2]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic Northern Vanuatu Malekula Interior Malekula Central Neve’ei
Language codes
ISO 639-3	vnm
Glottolog	vinm1237[3]

Neveʻei (IPA: [neveʔei]), also known as Vinmavis, is an Oceanic language of central Malekula, Vanuatu.^{[M 1]} There are around 500 primary speakers of Neve’ei and about 750 speakers in total.^{[M 1]}

Name of the language

The traditional name of the language, which is recognized by older speakers, is Neveʻei.^{[M 1]} However, the majority of younger speakers of Neve’ei do not use the traditional name and some are not even aware of it.^{[M 1]} Native speakers commonly refer to their language as Nabusian teget which literally means “our language” and in Bislama the language(Neveʻei) is called Lanwis Vinmavis “the language of Vinmavis”.^{[M 1]} Neveʻei is the traditional name for the language; Vinmavis is the name of one of the villages in which the language is spoken in(Lynch and Crowley 2001:83).^{[4][M 1]}

Phonology

Consonant phonemes[M 2]
	Labio-velar	Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless stop			t	k	ʔ
Voiced stop	bʷ	b	d	g
Nasal	mʷ	m	n	ŋ
Fricative	vʷ	v	s	x	h
Lateral			s
Flap			l
Glide	w		ɾ

Vowel phonemes[M 3]
	Front	Mid	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Syllable Structure^{[M 4]}

V(vowel) , C(consonant)	Neveʻei	English
V	/u-/	2SG.REAL(verbal prefix)
VC	/im/	only, just
VCC	/itl/	three
CV	/vi/	do, make
CC	/tn/	roast
CCV	/tno/	my (pronoun)
CCVC	/nsev/	cough
CVC	/dan/	go down, sink
CVCC	/matl/	thick
CCVCC	/nsutl/	eight

Syllables that consist of two vowels are also present, but are only used for specific reasons.^{[M 5]} While most two non-like vowels can be used to form a morpheme, there are certain exceptions that must be noted.^{[M 6]}

Impermissible vowel sequences[M 7]
eo, oe	mid vowels cannot be followed by another mid vowel
ea	mid front vowel /e/ cannot be followed by /a/
iu, eu	front vowels /i/ and /e/ cannot be followed by /u/
ae, ao	low vowel /a/ cannot be followed by a mid vowel
ui	back vowel /u/ cannot be followed by /i/

Orthography

Neve’ei does not have a traditional orthography. Like elsewhere in Vanuatu, most speakers of Neve’ei write using either Bislama, English or sometimes French. However, Neve’ei is sometimes used in writing for certain special occasions, such as the composition of hymns, recording details of family history, and land ownership.^{[M 8]} Due to the lack of stable spelling conventions for Neve’ei, individuals differ in the choice of orthographical methods when transcribing unusual phonemes. In the past efforts had been made to create a standard orthography, but the current situation is unknown.^{[M 8]}

Morphology

Pronouns

Independent pronouns

In Neve’ei, independent pronouns can function as verbal subjects, as verbal and prepositional objects, and as pronominal possessors following directly possessed nouns. Independent pronouns inflect according to person and number (singular, dual, or non-singular), but not according to case or grammatical gender. First person pronouns also distinguish between inclusive and exclusive in the dual and non-singular forms.^{[M 9]}

Independent pronouns[M 9]
	Singular	Dual	Non-singular
1st inclusive	no	getdru	get
1st exclusive		gememru	gemem
2nd	gu	gemru	gem
3rd	i	ardru	ar

Although Neve’ei has a distinction between dual and plural, the forms listed as non-singular can be used to refer to both dual and plural subjects. In these cases, even when the non-singular independent pronoun is used, the dual verbal prefix will be used.^{[M 10]}

Example:^{[M 11]}

gemem	bwera-vu	ran	nourour	toro
1NONSG.EXCL	1DL.IRR-go	GOAL	island	big
"We (two) will go to the mainland."

gemem	bwit-tovu	ran	nourour	toro
1NONSG.EXCL	1PL.IRR-go	GOAL	island	big
"We (all) will go to the mainland."

The pronominal forms listed as dual in the table are instead used in cases where there is a pragmatic contrast with singular or plural reference, or where two participants are acting together rather than separately.^{[M 12]}

Example:^{[M 12]}

ar	ar-vwelem
3NONSG	3DL.REAL-come
"They (two) came."

ardru	ar-vwelem
3DL	3DL.REAL-come
"They (two) came together."

Possessive pronouns

Neve’ei contains a set of possessive postmodifiers which are used as possessive adjuncts with indirectly possessed nouns. The possessive pronouns (used when the possessed noun is not overtly expressed) are derived from these possessive postmodifiers by adding the prefix ti-, although this may be omitted in some forms. Like the independent pronouns, these pronominal forms indicate person and number, and the non-singular forms may be used for dual referents. These pronominal forms also have an inclusive/exclusive distinction.^{[M 13]}

Possessive postmodifiers[M 14]
	Singular	Dual	Non-singular
1st inclusive	tno	tegetdru	teget
1st excusive		tegememru	tegemem
2nd	tugu	tegemru	tegem
3rd	ti	terdru	ter

Possessive pronouns[M 14]
	Singular	Dual	Non-singular
1st inclusive	titno	(ti)tegetdru	(ti)teget
1st excusive		(ti)tegememru	(ti)tegemem
2nd	(ti)tugu	tegemru	(ti)tegem
3rd	titi	titerdru	titer

Example:^{[M 13]}

gu	ke-takh	natitimwen	teget	bwe-sevakh
2SG	2SG.IRR-take	boy	1NONSG.INCL.POSS	3SG.IRR-one
"You will take one of our boys."

get	tuan	ba-khal	titi
1NONSG.INCL	INDEF	3SG.IRR-dig	3SG.POSS
"Each of us will dig his own."

Indefinite pronouns

Neve’ei also contains a set of indefinite pronouns which function as both verbals subjects and objects, with separate forms in fast and slow speech.^{[M 15]}

Slow speech	Fast speech
numuruan	numurwan	"somebody, someone"
nusutuan	nusutwan	"something"
nisituan	nisitwan	"something"
nei mang (mi)		"who, whoever"
Neve’ei mang (mi)		"what, whatever"

Example:^{[M 16]}

nisit	nganga'	i-leh	nusutwan
thing	little	3SG.REAL-see	something
"The child saw something"

Nouns

in Neveʻei, similar to most Oceanic Languages nouns do not change.^{[M 17]} The inflection of nouns by numbers does not occur and instead postmodifiers are used.^{[M 17]} It is also interesting to note that only two types of possession exist in Neveʻei.^{[M 17]} These two types of possession are: direct and indirect. For a directly possessed noun, a suffix is attached directly to the noun itself and for a indirectly possessed noun, a possessive postmodifier appears before the noun.

Direct possession[M 18]	Indirect possession
netal-ung	noang tno
leg-1SG	canoe 1SG.POSS
my leg	my canoe

Directly possessed nouns most commonly have stems ending in vowels, but stems ending in non-nasal alveolar consonants t,s,l and r have also been encountered.^{[M 17]}

Noun Derivation

In Neveʻei complex nouns can be formed by compounding or affixation.^{[M 19]} Compounding involves combining a noun root with either a noun or verb root. And affixation involves deriving nouns from verbs, a process in which a simulfix is added to the verb stem.^{[M 19]}

Numerals

Cardinal Numerals (numerals that denote quantity)

Neveʻei uses a decimal (base 10) system for numbers, however many young people are only familiar with one to ten, so higher value numerals are often expressed using methods derived from Bislama.^{[M 20]}

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
sevakh	iru	itl	ivah	ilim	nsouh	nsuru	nsutl	nsavah	nangavil (sevakh) / vungavil

10 is an interesting number in Neveʻei because it can be either nangavil or nangavil sevkh.^{[M 21]} Also note that nangavil is used for the actual number 10 when counting and vungavil is used to modify a phrase or noun.^{[M 21]} An example would be noang vungavil which translates to "10 canoes" in english.^{[M 21]}

Person markers

In Neve’ei, subject verbal prefixes are obligatory and indicate the person and number of the subject. There are two complete sets of prefixes: one for realis mood and the other for irrealis. Unlike the pronoun systems, there is no distinction between inclusive and exclusive first person, and dual prefixes are always used with dual referents. There is no set of affixes encoding the person and number of objects. Vowels in some of these prefixes may change according to the first vowel in the verb stem; this is a process of progressive assimilation at a distance.^{[M 22]}

Realis prefixes^{[M 23]}

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	nV-	er-	it-
2nd	u-	ar-	at-
3rd	i-/∅-

Irrealis prefixes^{[M 23]}

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	nVbwV-	bwVr-	bwit-
2nd	kV-	abwVr-	abwit-
3rd	bwV-

Example:^{[M 24]}

bwer-ngang

1DL.IRR-laugh

"we (both) will laugh"

er-ngang

1DL.REAL-laugh

"we (both) laugh"

ar-ngang

2/3DL.REAL-laugh

"you/they (both) laugh"

abwer-ngang

2/3DL.IRR-laugh

"you/they (both) will laugh"

The third person singular realis prefix is sometimes realised as ∅- in various environments. This is more common with certain verbs, especially verbs where the stem begins with s.

Example:^{[M 25]}

numur	bweradang	∅-sakh
person	real	3SG.REAL-is.not
"...not a real person."

Verbal prefixes ending in t also often lose the t before verb roots beginning with s.

Example:^{[M 25]}

i-sav

1PL.REAL-dance

"We (all) dance"

Reduplication in Neveʻei

Reduplication is most commonly used in Neveʻei to indicate things such as intensity, prohibition, reciprocity and habitual aspects and is also sometimes used in order to differentiate between transitive and intransitive forms of a verb.^{[M 26]} The most common method of reduplication in Neveʻei is the repeating of the first syllable in the verb stem.^{[M 26]}

Example^{[M 26]}

I-bans-bans do.

3SG.REAL-RED-wander. about a. little

(S)he wandered about a bit.

This example shows reduplication to express a habitual aspect.

Example^{[M 26]}

Abur-su-khus-khus-si ∅

2DL.IRR-NEG1-RED-kill-NEG2 3SG

Do not kill it.

This example shows reduplication to express prohibition.

Example^{[M 26]}

Ar are-te-teri ar.
2NONSG 3DL.REAL-RED-cut 3NONSG
They cut each other.

This example shows reduplication to express reciprocity.

Example^{[M 26]}

Ar ar-yang-yangwal ar.

3NONSG 3DL.REAL-RED-like 3NONSG

They like each other.

This example shows reduplication to express intensity.

Transitive suffix

In Neveʻei transitive and intransitive verbs are represented by a technique in which intransitive verbs become transitive through the addition of a suffix -V(vowel)n to the end of an intransitive verb stem.^{[M 27]}

The suffix to make verbs transitive has three allomorphs. They are:

-on ~ -en (used for verb stems ending in oC(consonant)).^{[M 27]}

-an ~ -en (used for verb stems ending in aC(consonant) where the consonant is also glottal or velar).^{[M 27]}

-en (used elsewhere).^{[M 27]}

Intransitive[M 27]	Transitive
nonong "finish"	nonong-on ~ nonong-en "finish"
ngang "laugh"	ngang-an ~ ngang-en "laugh at"
dedan "dive"	dedan-en "dive for"

Apart from addition of the suffix, there are two other methods to differentiate between intransitive and transitive verbs.

One other way is for both transitive and intransitive verbs to have very different forms of expression.^{[M 27]}

	Intransitive[M 27]	Transitive
"eat"	ʻaʻan	khan
"steal"	vevenaʻ	venokh
"burn"	lililmin	vang do

The final way for intransitive and transitive verbs to differentiate from each other is through reduplication.^{[M 28]}

	Transitve[M 29]	Intransitive
"turn around"	vilih	vil-vilih
"buy"	vul	vul-vul
"drink"	min	min-min
"copulate (with)"	ʻav	ʻav-ʻav

References

• Lynch & Crowley, 2001, Languages of Vanuatu: A New Survey and Bibliography. Australian National University.
• Musgrave, Jill (2007). A grammar of Neve’ei, Vanuatu. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 9780858835801.

Notes

• References from: Musgrave, Jill (2007). A grammar of Neve’ei, Vanuatu. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.