Kokota language

Vowels

The vowel inventory of Kokota is remarkably uninteresting - reflecting the Oceanic five-vowel system - but the actual sound of each may vary according to the phonetic environment. Despite a lack of phonemic length distinction in Kokota, one does find long vowels; however, this is due to a sequence of two identical vowels, rather than one long vowel – this distinction is demonstrated by the optional insertion of an epenthetic glottal stop between the two vowels ((Palmer 1999:20).

Kokota doesn’t contain any phonemic diphthongs; however they do occur in normal speech. Only certain vowel sequences are eligible for diphthonisation. Sequences may only diphthongise if the second vowel present is higher than the first. Front-back and back-front movements are not eligible to become diphthongs. This leaves six diphthongs able to occur (Palmer 1999:21–22): /ae/, /ai/, /ao/, /au/, /ei/ and /ou/. Diphthongisation is also not restricted by morpheme boundaries. Thus, any sequence of eligible vowels may diphthongise.

Consonants

Kokota orthography is heavily influenced by that of Cheke Holo. For instance, glottal stops are not phonemic in Kokota but are often written with an apostrophe (as in Cheke Holo) when they occur in certain nondistinctive environments, such as to mark morpheme boundaries between neighboring vowels. Similarly, Cheke Holo distinguishes j and z but Kokota does not. Nevertheless, Kokota speakers tend to use either letter to write phonemic /z/. The macron is used to write the voiced velar plosive /ɡ/ and the velar nasal /ŋ/.

Most consonants distinguish voiceless and voiced versions (left and right respectively in each cell in the table). Kokota presents a rather uncommon set of consonant phonemes in that each and every phoneme exists in a pair with its voiced or voiceless opposite. There are 22 consonant phonemes in total – 11 place and manner pairs of voiced and voiceless (Palmer 1999:12). The amount of voiced and voiceless consonants and vowels is nearly equal with the percentage being 52% voiced and 48% voiceless. There are 5 different manner classes in the Kokota language. Two are obstruent classes which are fricative and plosive and three are sonorant classes which are lateral, nasal, and rhotic. Its six fricative phonemes make Kokota a relative outlier in Oceanic, where 2-3 fricatives are usual.

Verb Complex

In the Kokota language there are two layers to the verb complex: an inner layer and an outer layer. The inner layer is the verb core which is transparent to any sentence modifiers. The outer layer can alter the verb core all together. Constituent modifiers can modify the verb complex in a sentence in addition to the inner and outer layers of verb complexes.

Verb Compounding

Compound verbs stem from multiple verbs. The left-hand root is the verb and the right-hand can be a noun, verb, or adjective. The phrase all together acts as a verb phrase.

Table retrieved from, Kokota Grammar by Bill Palmer, Honolulu, US: University of Hawaii Press, 2008.

Reduplication

Kokomo shows full and partial reduplication of disyllabic roots.

Partial Reduplication

In some cases partial reduplication shows the change of a noun to a verb; nouns from verbs; slight noun from noun differentiation; slight verb from verb differentiation; derived form of a habitual, ongoing, or diminutive event.

Tables retrieved from, Kokota Grammar by Bill Palmer, Honolulu, US: University of Hawaii Press, 2008.

Full Reduplication

There is only a small number of full reduplication of disyllabic roots in the Kokota language. Below are examples of full reduplication where the relationship is idiosyncratic:

Tables retrieved from, Kokota Grammar by Bill Palmer, Honolulu, US: University of Hawaii Press, 2008.

One example shows full reduplication deriving verbs from transitive roots, and nouns from verbs:

Tables retrieved from, Kokota Grammar by Bill Palmer, Honolulu, US: University of Hawaii Press, 2008.

Equative Clauses

Equative clauses represent a characteristic of the subject in the sentence. In the Kokota language moods are unmarked. In equatives, the subject agreement component in verb clauses are excluded.

Telling the Time

When telling the time; time is the subject. Telling time smaller than an hour is expressed by a NP that expresses the minutes numerically attached to a possessor that expresses the hour. Using the terms like ‘half past’ or ‘quarter to’ cannot be determined in Kokota language.

Table retrieved from, Kokota Grammar by Bill Palmer, Honolulu, US: University of Hawaii Press, 2008.

Topicalization

The topicalized subject in Kokota language is in the preverbal position. Any subject can be tropicalized but rarely in natural conversation.

Table retrieved from, Kokota Grammar by Bill Palmer, Honolulu, US: University of Hawaii Press, 2008.

Below is a table of the breakdown position occurrence of the first 100 verbal clauses in a normal text:

Table retrieved from, Kokota Grammar by Bill Palmer, Honolulu, US: University of Hawaii Press, 2008.

Pronouns

There exist four sets of pronominal forms: preverbal subject indexed auxiliaries, post verbal object indexing, possessor indexing and independent pronouns (Palmer 1999:65). Complying with typical Oceanic features, Kokota distinguishes between four person categories: first person inclusive, first person exclusive, second person, and third person. The preverbal subject indexing auxiliaries do not differentiate between singular and plural, whereas possessor and postverbal object indexing do – except in first person inclusive, where no singular is possible (Palmer 1999:65).

Non-Independent: Subject pronouns

The preverbal subject-indexing pronouns do not distinguish number (Palmer 1999:65).

Non-Independent: Object pronouns

The object-indexing pronouns are postverbal clitics (Palmer 1999:65).

Non-Independent: Possessor pronouns

The possessor-indexing pronouns are suffixed to nouns (Palmer 1999:65).

Independent: Focal pronouns

The independent pronouns, however, go one step further and differentiate between singular, dual, trial and plural numbers (Palmer 1999:65).

Possessive Constructions

Similarly to many Oceanic languages, Kokota makes the distinction between alienable possession and inalienable possession.

Inalienable

Inalienable possession consists of possessor indexing enclitics attaching to the nominal core of the possessed noun phrase as follows (Palmer 1999:121)):

Alienable

Alienable possession is formed with a possessive base that is indexed to the possessor. This entire unit precedes the possessed noun phrase. Alienable possession is further broken down into two categories, consumable, whose base is ge-, and non-consumable, whose base is no- (Palmer 1999:121).

Phrases

Below are phrases spoken in Kokota by a native speaker named Nathaniel Boiliana as he reminisced about World War II:

n-e-ge tor-i b=ana manei goi?

RL-3SGS-PRS open-TR ALT=thatN s/he VOC

Has he opened it [i.e., started the tape recorder]?

au bla n-a-ke=u [goveo] banesokeo

exist LMT RL-IEXCS-PFv=be.thus PNLOC PNLOC

I was living in [Goveo] Banesokeo,

tana aḡe ira mane ta zuke leba

then go thePL man SBO seek labor

then the men came to look for labor.

ḡ-e-la ara-hi ka vaka kabani-na amerika

NT-3s-go I-EMPH LOC ship company-3sGP PNLOC

So I was on an American company ship

aḡe hod-i=au banesokeo,

go take-TR=ISGO PNLOC

that took me from Banesokeo,

rauru raasalo, kepmasi

go.seaward PNLOC PNLOC

[we] went seaward to Russell, to Cape Masi.

n-e la au=nau sare. au bla ge au

RL-3s go exist=lsGO therep exist LMT SEQ exist

I went and stayed there. Staying and staying

ka frin̄he=na mane amerika=re maḡra maneri.

LOC work=thatN man PNLOC=thoseN fight they

in the work of those American men in the fight.

gu ḡ-au-gu rasalo e=u.

be.thus NT-exist-CNT PNLOC 3s=be.thus

Like that, living on Russell.

Numerals

The numeral system of Kokota has many typologically odd features and shows significant lexical replacement. In the numbers up to 10, only "7" fitu (< *pitu) is a clear Proto-Oceanic reflex. The higher numerals also alternate between multiples of 10 (e.g. tulufulu "30" from POc *tolu-puluq "3 x 10") and 20 (tilotutu "60" or "3 x tutu"), including two distinct morphemes with the meanings "10" (-fulu from Proto-Oceanic and -salai, used only on numbers above 60 and likely from a substrate) and "20" (varedake "20" and -tutu, also likely from a substrate). Ross describes it as one of the most bizarre numeral systems attested for an Oceanic language.