Xârâcùù

Alphabet

Xârâcùù is written with the Latin alphabet combined with many diacritics and digraphs, with a total of 61 graphemes. This writing system was developed in the early 1980s by linguistics laboratory LACITO (LACITO). Previously, missionaries used to transcribe the language (especially to produce versions of the Gospels or catechism) in the same handwriting as the Ajië language.

Phonology

The language has twenty-six consonant phonemes, ten oral vowels, seven nasal vowels and seventeen corresponding long vowels. Current research has shown that there are numerous phonemic contrasts, which leaves little room for allophonic variation. Xârâcùù has 27 consonants, some of which are nasalized plosives that are quite typical of Oceanic languages.

Xârâcùù has 34 vowels: 17 short (10 oral and 7 nasal) all of which can be elongated.

In comparison to other Oceanic languages, Xârâcùù's noun phrase structure is a little different. Most of the vowel modifiers in Xârâcùù come before the head. Some articles that feature this include a singular, du dual, ké paucal, and mîî~mîrî plural. There are several different morphemes for '10' and '15' which are just examples of a quinary numeral system.

The numeral style of the language allows for few numeral classifiers that often only occur as suffixes to the number one and as prefixes to all of the other numerals in the language.

Orthography

Xârâcùù orthography follows many of the same principles of most other New Caledonian languages with voiced letters representing prenasalized sounds. The orthographic representations of consonants are fairly transparent due to the use of only open syllables being permitted. Digraphs are used for a number of phonemes, e.g. bw, gw and ny for /mbw/, /ngw/, and /ñ/. As part of the French influence, ch stands for /∫/ and s for /ç/. The large number of contrasting vowels and the inclusion of vowel clusters and vowel length mean that accents and other diacritics have to be used to represent vowel phonemes.

Pronouns

^† Used only in the past tense. ^‡ Used with certain inalienable nouns.

* Used after the particle rè with vowel assimilation e.g. nea rè+rö > nea röö "your knife"

Prepositions

Xârâcùù has at least 17 known prepositions, at least half referring to direction or location. Three prepositions express types of comitative relationships.

Possession

Like many Oceanic languages, Xârâcùù features indirect and direct possession constructions. The following phrases demonstrate that "inalienable" nouns are directly possessed with the possessor, whether pronoun or noun, being directly suffixed to the possessed noun.

Indirect possession comes in two syntactic types varying by familiarity and a classification system. Seven possessive classifications have possessive pronominal suffix or are joined by the possessed noun. These classifiers usually refer to food nênê- (allomorph nânâ-), starchy foods or nèkê-, meat or (nê)wînè, food to be chewed or nèxêê-, drinks or (nê)wînyè-, tubers to be planted or harvested or nêngê-, and goods possessions or ngêê or êê. There are also three other qualifiers including: xû or topic of story telling, (rö)wâ or passive, and rè or general. In these cases the possessed noun comes first followed by the classifier and the possessor. A pronominal possessor does not occur as a suffix but rather a free form.

Morphology

There are only a few forms of verbal morphology in Xârâcùù. These include the nonproductive transitive suffix –ri, the causative fa-, the resultative/stative mê-, and the intransitivizer ù-. While transitive suffix do exist they are few and far between leaving the language to follow a strict SVO format for morphological marking.

The examples also show that the object of a sentence can be topicalized by fronting the transitive suffix as in vèè a- moving to the front of the sentence in example two. There is also reduplication, which acts like a functions intensifier. While there is a small amount of verbal morphology, each verb phrase can contain a preverbal subject-marking pronoun. Subject and Predicate phrase order is unmarked in Xarâcùù. There are ten tense-aspect markers (some are preverbal others postverbal) and one or more modifiers can be included (also pre-verbal or post-verbal).

As seen above in example one Pre verbal subject markers are unused if the subject in a noun phrase. But there are cased when there is a topicalized afterthought subject that follows the verb as seen in the second example where pa dopwa appears at the end rather than the beginning. Polar interrogatives also exist in Xarâcùù but are marked by the particle kae. The kae article follows the constituent that is the focus of the interrogation.

In comparison to many other Oceanic languages outside of New Caledonia Xarâcùù uses unusual phrase structure for nouns. The modifiers precede the head and the only thing that follows are demonstratives and markers of totality.

Subject and Predicate phrase order is unmarked in Xarâcùù.

Current status

Currently Xârâcùù is considered a recognized teaching Language and culture in New Caledonia. It is predominantly used as the main language in the Nouméa area. The Language is not considered an endangered language by UNESCO due to it being one of the most spoken languages in the area. With more than 90% of Canala residents being able to speak some form of it. Xârâcùù is the fourth most spoken language in New Caledonia Kanak. There is a teaching school in the Canala area but the most usage of the language happens in the home. Xârâcùù is being taught in the Canala area due to the EPK or Ecole Populaire Kanak that was founded by Marie-Adele Néchérö Jorédié. It is the only language that is being taught in the area and is taught in nursery, primary, two secondary schools, Thio (maternal Kouare village school and also in college) and in kindergartens in La Foa and Sarramea.

Example phrases

(all English Phrases are translated from French)

Dou Regula daa nä Jina.

-All because of that fateful day.

è wâ ket name: "wèi, jööpè nä, jè faxwata.

-He asked for news

è cen xwata döbwa ke ket.

-She would not listen to what you said.

History of a Flower

A traditional xârâcùù short story about a flower and a girl who speaks with the flower and hear its life story.

Small chronicle Naa xârâcùù

A small poem about the sky and the land of Canala.

Jari kè Xôkwé Ka: History

A historical tale about a taro field and those who tended it.

Previous documentation

There have been two dictionaries written on the Xârâcùù language in the last one hundred years. The most famous of which is Claire Moyse-Faurie's 1995 dictionary The Xârâcùù, language Thio-Canala (New Caledonia). Elements of syntax. The book contains a largely complete collections of words from the Xârâcùù language translated into French the prestige language of New Caledonia. The dictionary also come's with a forward written by the author outlining grammar, phonology, and syntax rules and some language specific rules. The second is an English/Xârâcùù language dictionary written by George William Grace in 1975 that is titled Canala dictionary (New Caledonia).