Akei | |
---|---|
Tasiriki | |
Native to | Vanuatu |
Region | Espiritu Santo |
Native speakers | (650 cited 1981) |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | tsr |
Glottolog | akei1237 |
Akei is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger |
Akei, or Tasiriki, is an Oceanic dialect chain spoken in southwestern coastal Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu, centred in the village of Tasiriki as well as to its north and east. [1] It has around 650 speakers. [2] The alternate name Tasiriki literally means "small water" (tasi "water", riki "small").
Akei mostly lacks grammatical gender, although for some relationship nouns the feminine is marked by the prefix ve- (e.g. natuna "his son", but venatuna "his daughter"). In other cases, natural sex is indicated by separate words or by takuni ("male") or pita ("female") following the noun (e.g. tavasao takuni "man-servant", tavasao pita "maid-servant").
Plurals are unmarked and are shown only by juxtaposition of an adjective or pronoun (e.g. mazi alulusi "many animals").
A few nouns, including body parts and relationship names, decline to show possession between the noun and its pronoun subject (e.g. loeku "my voice").
Possessive suffixes | Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|
1st | ku | Inclusive | ka |
Exclusive | mam | ||
2nd | m | mim | |
3rd | na | ra |
Agent nouns are formed by the word takuni "man" followed by a word indicating the action (e.g. takuni veseni "teacher", from lulusi veseni "to teach).
Singular | Plural | ||
---|---|---|---|
1st | inau (I) | Inclusive | inika (we, when including the addressee) |
Exclusive | komam (we, when excluding the addressee) | ||
2nd | iniko (singular 'you') | komim (plural 'you') | |
3rd | inia (he/she/it) | inira (they) |
Akei has a clusivity distinction, a grammatical difference between inclusive and exclusive first person pronouns. The inclusive form is used when including the addressee, whereas the exclusive form excludes them.
There is a single demonstrative pronoun, nake, meaning "this" or "that". This may be preceded by the third person pronouns inia and inira to mark singularity or plurality: inia nake "this", "that"; inira nake "these", "those". The interrogative pronouns are isei "who", sava "what" and savai "what is". Indefinite pronouns include te "any", tese'ese "anyone", povi "all, every", inira povi "everyone".
The reflexive pronoun is 'ase followed by a suffixed possessive pronoun (e.g. ra te 'asera varaira "they told one another")
Reflexive pronouns | Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|
1st | 'aseku | Inclusive | n/a |
Exclusive | 'asemam | ||
2nd | 'asem | 'asemim | |
3rd | 'asena | 'asera |
Adjectives can be a single morpheme, a compound (e.g. takuni epevuluvulura'a "hairy man", from epe "body" and vulu "hair") or prefixed with ma (e.g. malum "soft"). A noun or verb may be used as an adjective without change to its form (e.g. uro ai "water pot" from ai "water). Adjectives follow their noun (e.g. takuni vure 'a "good man", literally "man good").
Verbs inflect for subject and object.
Subject prefixes | Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|
1st | na | Inclusive | ka |
Exclusive | koma | ||
2nd | ko | komi | |
3rd | i | ra |
Object suffixes | Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|
1st | au | Inclusive | ka |
Exclusive | n/a | ||
2nd | ko | n/a | |
3rd | a | ra |
In the second person plural and first person exclusive plural, the full pronoun is used (e.g. ka'ika ask us, but ka'i komim ask you).
Akei uses a quinary numeral system, with a distinct word for ten.
Akei | English |
---|---|
mo 'ese | one |
mo rua | two |
mo tolu | three |
mo vati | four |
mo lima | five |
mo 'a'ese | six |
mo ravu 'arua | seven |
mo ravu 'atolu | eight |
mo ravu 'a vati | nine |
mo sanavulu | ten |
The list below is a selected sample of Akei words. [3]
Akei | English |
---|---|
maci | fish |
biriu | dog |
utu | louse |
laiau | tree |
rauna | leaf |
benubenu | skin |
kae | blood |
sui | bone |
kalina | ear |
mata | eye |
lanisu | nose |
ako | tooth |
meme | tongue |
pau | knee |
lima | hand |
susu | breast |
mape | liver |
unu | drink |
talesia | see |
ronoa | hear |
mate | die |
mae | come |
mata alo | sun |
macoe | star |
wae | water |
sule | stone |
apu | fire |
sala | path |
patibuti | mountain |
poni | night |
abuni | new |
isa | name |
Genesis 1.1-5 in English: [5]
Latin declension is the set of patterns according to which Latin words are declined—that is, have their endings altered to show grammatical case, number and gender. Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are declined, and a given pattern is called a declension. There are five declensions, which are numbered and grouped by ending and grammatical gender. Each noun follows one of the five declensions, but some irregular nouns have exceptions.
Latin is a heavily inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for number and case; pronouns and adjectives are inflected for number, case, and gender; and verbs are inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, voice, and mood. The inflections are often changes in the ending of a word, but can be more complicated, especially with verbs.
The plural, in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This default quantity is most commonly one. Therefore, plurals most typically denote two or more of something, although they may also denote fractional, zero or negative amounts. An example of a plural is the English word boys, which corresponds to the singular boy.
The morphology of Irish is in some respects typical of an Indo-European language. Nouns are declined for number and case, and verbs for person and number. Nouns are classified by masculine or feminine gender. Other aspects of Irish morphology, while typical for an Insular Celtic language, are not typical for Indo-European, such as the presence of inflected prepositions and the initial consonant mutations. Irish syntax is also rather different from that of most Indo-European languages, due to its use of the verb–subject–object word order.
Gilbertese, also Kiribati, is an Austronesian language spoken mainly in Kiribati. It belongs to the Micronesian branch of the Oceanic languages.
Middle Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh.
The morphology of the Welsh language has many characteristics likely to be unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a moderately inflected language. Verbs inflect for person, number, tense, and mood, with affirmative, interrogative, and negative conjugations of some verbs. There is no case inflection in Modern Welsh.
The grammar of the Polish language is complex and characterized by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). There commonly are no articles, and there is frequent dropping of subject pronouns. Distinctive features include the different treatment of masculine personal nouns in the plural, and the complex grammar of numerals and quantifiers.
The grammar of Modern Greek, as spoken in present-day Greece and Cyprus, is essentially that of Demotic Greek, but it has also assimilated certain elements of Katharevousa, the archaic, learned variety of Greek imitating Classical Greek forms, which used to be the official language of Greece through much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Modern Greek grammar has preserved many features of Ancient Greek, but has also undergone changes in a similar direction as many other modern Indo-European languages, from more synthetic to more analytic structures.
Czech declension is a complex system of grammatically determined modifications of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals in Czech, one of the Slavic languages. Czech has seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, locative and instrumental, partly inherited from Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Slavic. Some forms of words match in more than one place in each paradigm.
This article discusses the grammar of the Western Lombard (Insubric) language. The examples are in Milanese, written according to the Classical Milanese orthography.
This article summarizes grammar in the Hawaiian language.
Lau, also known as Mala, is an Oceanic language spoken on northeast Malaita, in the Solomon Islands. In 1999, Lau had about 16,937 first-language speakers, with many second-language speakers through Malaitan communities in the Solomon Islands, especially in Honiara.
Breton is a Brittonic Celtic language in the Indo-European family, and its grammar has many traits in common with these languages. Like most Indo-European languages it has grammatical gender, grammatical number, articles and inflections and, like the other Celtic languages, Breton has mutations. In addition to the singular–plural system, it also has a singulative–collective system, similar to Welsh. Unlike the other Brittonic languages, Breton has both a definite and indefinite article, whereas Welsh and Cornish lack an indefinite article and unlike the other extant Celtic languages, Breton has been influenced by French.
Bolognese is a dialect of Emilian spoken in the most part in the city of Bologna and its hinterland, but also in the district of Castelfranco Emilia in the province of Modena, and in the towns of Sambuca Pistoiese (Tuscany), Cento, Sant'Agostino, and Poggio Renatico.
The morphology of the Welsh language shows many characteristics perhaps unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a moderately inflected language. Verbs conjugate for person, tense and mood with affirmative, interrogative and negative conjugations of some verbs. A majority of prepositions inflect for person and number. There are few case inflections in Literary Welsh, being confined to certain pronouns.
Nding is a (critically) endangered Niger–Congo language in the Talodi family of Kordofan, Sudan.
Mavea 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.
Quenya is a constructed language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his fictional universe, Middle-earth. Here is presented a resume of the grammar of late Quenya as established from Tolkien's writings c. 1951–1973. It is almost impossible to extrapolate the morphological rules of the Quenya tongue from published data because Quenya is a fictional and irregular language that was heavily influenced by natural languages, such as Finnish and Latin, not an international auxiliary language with a regular morphology.
Longgu (Logu) is a Southeast Solomonic language of Guadalcanal, but originally from Malaita.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link)