Paamese language
In Paamese nominals can occur in four environments: There are four major classes of nominals: Free pronouns in Paamese: The paucal is generally used for numbers in the range of about three to six, and the plural is generally used for numbers greater than twelve.In the range of six to twelve, whether a speaker of Paamese uses paucal or plural is dependent on what the thing being spoken about is contrasted with.When Crowley was writing in 1982 he stated that the numeral system of Paamese was not used by anyone under the age of 30 and only rarely by those older than 30.The following is a list of the seven non-numeral indefinites in Paamese: All nouns fall into one of two subclasses using different constructions for possession.This can be explained through the experience of butchering or cooking of animals in which the internal organs are removed and thus alienated from the body.Semantically, they describe some property or quality attributed to something, and grammatically they usually behave like adjectives, that is they occur as adjuncts in a copular verb phrase.However unlike adjectives they do occasionally appear in distinctly nominal slots such as in the subject or object position to a verb.Paamese demonstrates extensive inflectional morphology on verbs, distinguishing between a number of different modal categories that are expressed as prefixes.The verb root form is bounded on the left by subject-mood prefixes and on the right by inflectional suffixes.Verb roots fall into one of six different classes according to the ways that the initial segment inflects.Each of the four root forms denotes a specific set of morpho-syntactic environments: A verb is entered into the lexicon in its A-form.Imperative portmanteau subject-mood prefixes are as follows: Negation in Paamese is marked by the prefix -ro, which is added between subject markers and the root form of the verb, affirmative constructions are marked by the absence of a morpheme in this position.This is due to the fact that these moods, despite being irrealis, do not express any form of expectation that the event will become real from the speaker.It is used as the negative forms of: Kai3SGrongadei3SG.real.neg.eat.PTVvetabreadfruitKai rongadei veta3SG 3SG.real.neg.eat.PTV breadfruitHe didn't eat the breadfruitThe use of the partitive in these examples expresses that a non-generic object is entirely unaffected by an event, rather than being only partially unaffected (the example above describes the breadfruit being entirely uneaten, as opposed to only some remaining uneaten).The non-partitive negative is used to as a negator of transitive verbs with generic objects such as: LetauwomankailPLaropipile3PL.real.neg.REDUP.playpimarblesLetau kail aropipile piwoman PL 3PL.real.neg.REDUP.play marblesWomen never play marblesLohonchildkailPLnaromumuas1SG.REAL.NEG.REDUP.hitkail3PLLohon kail naromumuas kailchild PL 1SG.REAL.NEG.REDUP.hit 3PLI never hit childrenThe above examples are also able to be expressed using the partitive negative construction as seen in the below example: LohonchildkailPLnaromumuastei1SG.REAL.NEG.REDUP.hit.PTVkail3PLLohon kail naromumuastei kailchild PL 1SG.REAL.NEG.REDUP.hit.PTV 3PLI never hit childrenHowever, this construction has no apparent change in meaning to non-partitive constructions.Reduplication has a fairly wide range of semantic functions in Paamese and can in some cases even change the class which a form belongs.A tightly bound adjunct must always be followed by the inflectional suffixes, as no constituent can intervene between it, and the verb phrase head.It is not often possible to predict the meanings of serial verbs in Paamese and there are a large number of verbal adjuncts which do not occur as heads themselves.However, while a declarative typically ends in falling intonation, a rise-fall turns the clause into a question.These take the form of a declarative clause, but insert one of the following words into the syntactic slot that information is being requested about: There are many different ways to express the spatial deictics of Paamese.Such as:[5] autePlaceke+atahasuSUB.sowvaa+ene3SG.REAL.go.SPkaie3SGmuusili3SG.REAL.followkati+eintense.3SGluu+vaa3DU.REAL.gon+aute=nekeLOC.place.DISTaute ke+atahasu vaa+ene kaie muusili kati+e luu+vaa n+aute=nekePlace SUB.sow 3SG.REAL.go.SP 3SG 3SG.REAL.follow intense.3SG 3DU.REAL.go LOC.place.DISTWherever the sow went, he followed her thereAs analyzed by Terry Crowley, eni- has a large range of syntactic functions and abilities.For example:[4] naimoinsideeniSPsukuluchurchnaimo eni sukuluinside SP churchInside the churchnesaaaboveeniSPhauohillnesaa eni hauoabove SP hillOn top of the hillSome examples of place adverbs in Paamese are:[7] The prefix N(a)- is in some cases used to change a noun into a place adverb:[8] This is not always the case in Paamese.N(a)- can also combine to create phrases with entirely new meaning giving information about location in relation to a specific place, usually directionally.
VanuatuLanguage familyAustronesianMalayo-PolynesianOceanicSouthern OceanicNorth-Central VanuatuCentral VanuatuISO 639-3GlottologUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in DangerTerry CrowleyAustronesian languagethe languageAmbrymcognatemutually intelligibleMalampa ProvincePort VilaLabialAlveolarGlottalVoicelessPrenasalizedFricativeLateralcentralorthographyvelar nasalpaucalpossessionalienable and inalienable possessioninflectional morphologymodal categoriesirrealis moodsrealis moodprefixmorphemerealisirrealisimperativepartitiveReduplicationserial verb constructionBislamaEthnologueArthur CapellParadisecLanguages of VanuatuEnglishFrenchPolynesianNorth VanuatuTorres–BanksLehaliLemerigLo-TogaLöyöpMwerlapMwesenMwotlapVera'aVurësPenamaNorth AmbrymBaetoraFanbakSungwadagaSungwadiaEspiritu SantoAmblongButmasMerei-TialeNarangoNethalpNokukuPiamatsinaPolonombaukTamamboTambotaloTangoaTasmateToksikiTolomakoTutubaValpeiVunapuWailapaDaruruRetlaturFarnantoFanafoNorth EfateNafsanEfateseLelepaMakuraDaakakaDalkalaenLonwolwolPort VatoSoutheast AmbrymBiereboBieriaMalakulaAveteianBig NambasBotovroBurmbarBwenelangLarëvatLendamboiLitzlitzMalfaxalMalua BayMaskelynesNahavaqNasarianNasvangNavwienNeve'eiNeververNisvaiNititaPort Sandwich