Nafsan language
Based on shared features with southern Vanuatu languages (including echo–subject marking, and the free and preposed 1st-singular-possessive morphemes), Lynch (2001) suggests it could form part of a southern Vanuatu subgroup that includes New Caledonia instead of the neighboring Efate languages.There is a distinction between short and long vowels but it is currently in a process of change that makes its status unclear.[T2006 4] AD:Addressee deictic DET:Determiner DST:Distant DUR:Durative IR:Irrealis IRR:Irrealis subject NEG:Negative marker PREP:Preposition PS:Perfect subject PSP:Prospective REL:Relativiser RS:Realis subject TR:Transitive marker TS:Transitive suffix DP:Direct possession I=tao3SG.RS=leftnawensandnethisI=tao nawen ne3SG.RS=left sand thisShe left this sand bank.High vowels in prepositions acting as a prefix often undergo a process of vowel centralisation to reduce the unstressed syllable.In (2), the high vowel /i/ in the preposition ki is reduced to [ə] when preceding the demonstrative nen 'that'.[T2006 8]knen possession: This form is used as an inanimate referent, and often indicates a previously mentioned participant in the discourse.[T2006 14]Sometimes, in the casual speech of young people predominantly, the second negative particle mau is left off, as seen in the following example.Similar to other Southern Oceanic languages, these forms serve both spatio-temporal and discourse deictic functions.[5][4] There is an ability for syntactic ambiguity stemming from the two common functions encoded by demonstratives resulting in dual interpretations possible in some utterances.[6] They typically appear in two locations within a sentence as shown in examples (18) and (19); as a modifier of the noun phrase and following a directional adverb, respectively.Otherwise, demonstratives must undergo nominalisation through the addition of the prefix te- (see 3.4.1) as they cannot occur as the only exponent of a noun phrase.[T2006 17]The form nen 'that' frequently occurs in collocation with the subordinator kin to create the English equivalent 'that which' as seen in example (19).Furthermore, like spatio-temporal demonstratives, it also has the deictic function of acting as a referent to previous parts of a discourse as shown in example (21).[T2006 16] This function of drawing attention to its preceding forms has been used alongside fillers iwel, gawan, tkanwan which are all used to mean 'thus', 'that's the way', or 'like that', the latter of which is used at the end of the story as seen in example (23).[T2006 14]The emphatic purpose of this demonstrative is similar to those found in other languages of Vanuatu such as the form na- in Ske in example (24).'Nominalisation of demonstratives, verbs, possessives, ordinal numbers, quantifiers, and nouns occurs in Nafsan through the attachment of the determiner prefix te-.[T2006 23]The examples (1a)& (1b) show the 1st person singular pronoun kineu performed as the subject and object correspondingly.[T2006 8]There are variation forms of the suffix -nig , when it combines with an unstressed syllable, the high vowel will become lower.For the pronominal suffixes of bound pronouns, the plural form is used to express any number that is greater than one.The realis is unmarked, and the irrealis being marked in the subject to show the action is yet to be realised, including most of the future events but not all, all the imperatives and hortatives."[T2006 25]The examples (4) show all realis form of pronouns in all cases except the subject of the verb mai ‘to come’ which is appeared in a desiderative complement.Perfect proclitics can be found in narratives that deal with long events like World War 2.[T2006 25]The example(5) shows the perfect proclitics being used to refer to those who are long dead in a narrative sentence.[T2006 26]There are two separate types of object suffix, can be distinguished by the roles they encoded and the host they attached to.8) ambitransitive verb I=f3SG.RS=CONDwelthusku=f2SG.RS=CONDtaeknowtrok-wesagree-3SG.OBLgoandka=fo1SG.IRR=PSP:IRplak-e-rwith-TS-3p.Oler.returnI=f wel ku=f tae trok-wes go ka=fo plak-e-r ler.3SG.RS=COND thus 2SG.RS=COND know agree-3SG.OBL and 1SG.IRR=PSP:IR with-TS-3p.O returnIf you agree with it, then I will go back with them.9) ditransitive verb Oryeska=fo1SG.IRR=PSP:IRmerin.turnnrik-i-rtell-TS-3PL.OkiPREPi=skei.3SG.RS=oneOr ka=fo mer nrik-i-r ki i=skei.yes 1SG.IRR=PSP:IR in.turn tell-TS-3PL.O PREP 3SG.RS=oneYes, I will now tell them one (story).10) oblique suffix Naliatidaynenthisrak=fo3DU.IRR=PSP:IRres-wesrace-3SG.OBLmebutkatomhermit.crabi=pei3SG.RS=firstusrek-kigo.round-TRsereverynagis.pointNaliati nen rak=fo res-wes me katom i=pei usrek-ki ser nagis.day this 3DU.IRR=PSP:IR race-3SG.OBL but hermit.crab 3SG.RS=first go.round-TR every pointThat day they would race, but the hermit crab was first around every point.[T2006 29]Below is a table explaining the common abbreviations used in negation examples above:[T2006 30] Thieberger's field recordings have been archived with Paradisec: An Android app version of the dictionary can be downloaded here.