Native speakers 800 (1997–2001) | ||
Region Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu Language family Austronesian
Malayo-Polynesian
Oceanic
Southern Oceanic
Northern Vanuatu
Northeast Vanuatu – Banks Islands
West Santo
Malmariv ISO 639-3 Either:
mnl – Tiale
lmb – Merei Glottolog tial1239 (Tiale)
mere1242 (Merei) | ||
Malmariv/Merei is an Oceanic language spoken in north central Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu.
Contents
- Merei Phonology
- Pronouns and Person Markers
- Independent pronouns
- Preverbal Subject Pronouns and Suffixes
- Reflexive pronouns
- Demonstrative Pronouns
- References
There are two varieties, Tiale, or Malmariv, and Merei, or Lametin. They are mutually intelligible according to a comparison of 234 words, among which 94.87 cognates were found. There are an estimated 800 speakers of Malmariv-Merei or Tiale-Lametin. With Merei being spoken by approximately 400 people as a mother tongue. There are at least four villages where Merei is spoken, Angoru, Navele, Tombet and Vusvogo. These villages are located between the Ora and Lape rivers in the central area of Espiritu Santo Island.
Merei Phonology
Merei has a phoneme inventory consisting of sixteen consonants and five vowels. The combinations of vowels can form nine diphthongs.
Pronouns and Person Markers
The pronominal system contains two free-form categories, independent pronouns and preverbal subject pronouns, and two bound categories, object pronominal suffix and possessive pronominal suffix. No gender or animate distinction is made. Pronouns only have animate reference.
The pronominal system makes a distinction between first, second and third persons. Singular, dual, and plural are marked by number. First person dual and plural makes the distinction between inclusive and exclusive.
Table 4 below shows Merei's independent pronouns along with preverbal subject pronouns and pronominal suffixes.
Independent pronouns
In this example we see the 2nd person independent pronoun being used as a speech act of invitation.
Example 2 shows use of the first person plural exclusive independent pronoun gamau.
Preverbal Subject Pronouns and Suffixes
Example 3 below uses the preverbal subject pronoun nam and the possessive pronominal suffix -gu.
Example 4 below demonstrates the absence of a 3rd person singular preverbal subject pronoun and also contains the 3rd person plural pronominal suffix -ra.
Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive pronouns are formed from the root nese- followed by a possessive pronominal suffix. It can be used in concurrence with the free pronoun and is often followed by the free particle nga 'only' as seen in example 5 and 6 below.
Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns consist of a mix of locational adverbs and third person pronouns. They have three possible functions: they can occupy the whole noun phrase slot, act as an independent nominal argument or be placed at the end of a noun phrase to modify the noun-head. The classifications of demonstrative adverbs are based on two aspects: speaker-hearer reference and spatial reference.
Spatial reference demonstrative pronouns are formed by the third person independent pronouns, nie and ire when linked to spatial adverbial adverbs.