This article should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{ lang }}, {{ transliteration }} for transliterated languages, and {{ IPA }} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used.(March 2021) |
Tape | |
---|---|
Maragus | |
Native to | Vanuatu |
Region | Central Malekula |
Native speakers | 15 (2006) [1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | mrs |
Glottolog | mara1399 |
ELP | Tape |
Tape is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Coordinates: 16°04′S167°20′E / 16.07°S 167.33°E |
Tape, also known as Maragus, is a nearly extinct Southern Oceanic language of Vanuatu. [2] The population of speakers of the Tape language is reduced to approximately 15 speakers who are among the older generations. [3] The language is part of the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. [2]
The original location was located in an area in Malakula, including the coast from Anuatakh to Lowinsinwei, the area between the Lowisinwei River valley, the eastern bank of the Brenwei River, and a mountain in the south known as Pwitarvere. Since part of the Tape territory was close to the ocean, it allowed the people living in the area to harvest salt which was used to trade with the Tirakh people. [3] However, the Tape people mostly lived their lives "towards the bush," meaning their lives were more oriented towards the land even though they had access to the ocean. This is shown in their language because although they lived along the coast, their descendants were not very knowledgeable or could not come up with a significant amount of terms related to the sea. [3]
Originally, there was no distinct name for the Tape language. Tape was the name of the area that the speakers lived on while in the past the language was referred to as vengesien Tape, meaning 'the language of Tape'. Over time however, people have come to use and recognize the name of the language to be "Tape". This language also has a few alternative names known as Marakus, Maragus, Maragaus, and Maraakhus, which were used by the speakers of the Naman language who were living in the Litzlitz area. The name has two roots, mar (person of (place)) and aakhus (bush) and when they are put together, the name's literal translation is 'person of the bush'. [3]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | u | |
Mid | e | ə | o |
Low | a |
In the Tape language, there are a total of six vowels /a, e, i, o, u, and ə./ Although schwa (/ə/) is part of the list, there is a lot of debate on the role schwa plays in the language. [3]
Comparing the use of /i/ and /e/
Comparing the use of /e/ and /a/
Comparing the use of /a/ and /o/
Comparing the use of /o/ and /u/
When the letter /i/ comes before the velar fricative /ɣ/ it becomes a high vowel. [3]
Examples
When the letter /i/ is the first letter and comes before the velar fricative /ɣ/, a palatal glide comes after. [3]
Examples
When the /u/ is followed by another vowel, an optional rounded glide occurs between the two vowels. [3]
Examples
When using the combination of /ue/, one can substituted it for /uo/, but /uo/ cannot be substituted for /ue/. [3]
Examples
Comparing the use of /i/ and /ə/
Comparing the use of /e/ and /ə/
Comparing the use of /a/ and /ə/
Comparing the use of /o/ and /ə/
Comparing the use of /u/ and /ə/
Although schwa (/ə/) is a contrastive vowel among some languages, it is not a universal vowel in all the languages in the area. In the Tape language, schwa is very common and is in 16.5% of the lexicon. The schwa is a unique vowel because it cannot begin or end a word. It also cannot follow or come before another vowel, meaning that there must be simultaneously preceded and followed by a consonant. [3]
Plain Obstruents | p̃ | p | t | k | |
Prenazalized stops | b̃ | b | d | ɡ | |
Affricates | t͡ʃ ~ t͡s (j) | ||||
Fricatives | ṽ | v | s | ɣ | |
Nasals | m | n | ŋ | ||
Lateral | l | ||||
Rhotic | r | ||||
Glides | w | j (y) |
There are many similarities as well as differences in the consonants available in the languages around the Tape area. For example, Tape does not contain any apicolabial consonants which is similar to the languages in the northeastern part of Malakua. Also the Tape language includes the contrastive palatal affricate, /č/, which is not present in V'ënen Taut, a language located near Tape. In addition, the Tape language contains a contrastive series of labiovelar consonants which the languages, V'ënen Taut, Larevat, and Naman lack. [3]
One is able to obtain a noun by adding a -ien to the a verb root. [3]
Examples
By adding -ien to a verb ending in p, the p will usually change to a v. [3]
Examples
One is able to obtain a noun By adding në- to a verb. [3]
Examples
By combining two nouns together, one is able to form a new noun related to both words. [3]
lumlum
waterweed
tes
sea
'seaweed'
netite
child
dui
man
'boy'
Adding a place after a noun indicates the noun is originating from that particular place. [3]
dui
man
Tape
location
'Tape man'
dui
man
elo
coast
'coastal person'
In many Oceanic languages, there is a distinction between indirect and direct possession of nouns. Indirect possession usually occurs when adding another phrase or word after the possessive noun while direct possession occurs when adding a prefix to the noun it is possessing. [3]
nisip
knife
ese
POSS
mwëliun
chief
'the chief's knife'
pëti
head
-k
1SG
There are special markers indicating the different types of possession like using ese- for general possession. Besides the general possession, there is possession towards, eating, chewing, and drinking. By adding de-, jomo-, and mëne-, one is referring to eating, chewing, and drinking respectively.
Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | dok | dedru | dedëtël | ded |
2 | dom | - | - | - |
3 | den | daru | dartël | dar |
mëtiu
coconut
do-m
ED:2SG
'your coconut (for eating)'
Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | jomok | jomodru | jomodëtël | jomod |
2 | jomom | - | - | - |
3 | jomon | jomaru | jomartël | jomar |
niji
sugarcane
jomo-m
CHEW-2SG
'your sugarcane (for chewing)'
Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | mënok | mënedru | mënedëtël | mëned |
2 | mënom | - | - | - |
3 | mënen | mënaru | mënartël | mënar |
nuo
water
mëno-m
DRINK-2SG
'your water (for drinking)'
Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | (g)esek | (g)esedru | (g)esedëtël | (g)esed |
2 | (g)esom | - | - | - |
3 | (g)esen | (g)esaru | (g)esartël | (g)esar |
nisip
knife
eso-m
POSS-2SG
'your knife'
Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | -k | -dru | -dëtël | -d |
2 | -m | - | - | - |
3 | -n | -ru | -rtël | -r |
Example
When counting from 1–10, it is like counting in any other language where an arbitrary meaning is attached to a word. After counting to ten, one must add the word, isngel and dëmon before the numerals 1–9 to make teen numbers. The form, dëmon, has no meaning by itself in the Tape language. [3]
Ë, ë (e-diaeresis) is a letter in the Albanian, Kashubian, Emilian, Romagnol, Ladin, and Lenape alphabets. As a variant of the letter e, it also appears in Acehnese, Afrikaans, Belarusian, Breton, Dutch, English, Filipino, French, Luxembourgish, Piedmontese, Russian, the Abruzzese dialect of the Neapolitan language, and the Ascolano dialect. The letter is also used in Seneca, Taiwanese Hokkien, Turoyo, and Uyghur when written in Latin script.
Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken by some 350,000–450,000 ethnic Fijians as a native language. The 2013 Constitution established Fijian as an official language of Fiji, along with English and Fiji Hindi and there is discussion about establishing it as the "national language". Fijian is a VOS language.
Korandje is a Northern Songhay language which is by far the most northerly of the Songhay languages. It is spoken around the Algerian oasis of Tabelbala by about 3,000 people; its name literally means "village's language". While retaining a basically Songhay structure, it is extremely heavily influenced by Berber and Arabic; about 20% of the 100-word Swadesh list of basic vocabulary consists of loanwords from Arabic or Berber, and the proportion of the lexicon as a whole is considerably higher.
Greenlandic is an Eskimo–Aleut language with about 57,000 speakers, mostly Greenlandic Inuit in Greenland. It is closely related to the Inuit languages in Canada such as Inuktitut. It is the most widely spoken Eskimo–Aleut language. In June 2009, the government of Greenland, the Naalakkersuisut, made Greenlandic the sole official language of the autonomous territory, to strengthen it in the face of competition from the colonial language, Danish. The main variety is Kalaallisut, or West Greenlandic. The second variety is Tunumiit oraasiat, or East Greenlandic. The language of the Inughuit of Greenland, Inuktun or Polar Eskimo, is a recent arrival and a dialect of Inuktitut.
Marquesan is a collection of East-Central Polynesian dialects, of the Marquesic group, spoken in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. They are usually classified into two groups, North Marquesan and South Marquesan, roughly along geographic lines.
Taba is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the South Halmahera–West New Guinea group. It is spoken mostly on the islands of Makian, Kayoa and southern Halmahera in North Maluku province of Indonesia by about 20,000 people.
Manam is a Kairiru–Manam language spoken mainly on the volcanic Manam Island, northeast of New Guinea.
Tamambo, or Malo, is an Oceanic language spoken by 4,000 people on Malo and nearby islands in Vanuatu. It is one of the most conservative Southern Oceanic languages.
Anejom̃ or Aneityum is an Oceanic language spoken by 900 people on Aneityum Island, Vanuatu. It is the only indigenous language of Aneityum.
Ughele is an Oceanic language spoken by about 1200 people on Rendova Island, located in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.
Erromangan, or Sie (Sye), is the primary language spoken on the island Erromango in the Tafea region of the Vanuatu islands. The other Erromanga languages are either moribund or extinct. Although the island is quite large (887 km2), the total number of speakers of Erromango is estimated at 1900.
Uyghur is a Turkic language spoken mostly in the west of China.
Schwa deletion, or schwa syncope, is a phenomenon that sometimes occurs in Assamese, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Gujarati, and several other Indo-Aryan languages with schwas that are implicit in their written scripts. Languages like Marathi and Maithili with increased influence from other languages through coming into contact with them—also show a similar phenomenon. Some schwas are obligatorily deleted in pronunciation even if the script suggests otherwise. Here, schwa refers to an inherent vowel in the respective abugida scripts, not necessarily pronounced as schwa.
Mav̋ea 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 Mav̋ea language reported in 2008.
Tawala is an Oceanic language of the Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by 20,000 people who live in hamlets and small villages on the East Cape peninsula, on the shores of Milne Bay and on areas of the islands of Sideia and Basilaki. There are approximately 40 main centres of population each speaking the same dialect, although through the process of colonisation some centres have gained more prominence than others.
Merei or Malmariv is an Oceanic language spoken in north central Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu.
Baluan-Pam is an Oceanic language of Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken on Baluan Island and on nearby Pam Island. The number of speakers, according to the latest estimate based on the 2000 Census, is 2,000. Speakers on Baluan Island prefer to refer to their language with its native name Paluai.
Neveʻei, also known as Vinmavis, is an Oceanic language of central Malekula, Vanuatu. There are around 500 primary speakers of Neveʻei and about 750 speakers in total.
Ura is a moribund language of the island Erromango in Vanuatu. It was thought to be extinct, after massive depopulation of the island in the nineteenth century, until Terry Crowley discovered a handful of elderly speakers in the 1990s.
Turkmen grammar is the grammar of the Turkmen language, whose dialectal variants are spoken in Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and others. Turkmen grammar, as described in this article, is the grammar of standard Turkmen as spoken and written by Turkmen people in Turkmenistan.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)