Tawala language

Tawala
Kehelala
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Milne Bay Province
Native speakers	20,000 (2000 census)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic Papuan Tip Nuclear Papuan Tip North Mainland – D'Entrecasteaux Taupota Tawala
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tbo
Glottolog	tawa1275[2]

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.^[3]

Phonology

Tawala has a moderately small consonant inventory of 15 consonants, an average vowel quality inventory of five vowels, and an also average consonant-vowel ratio of 3.^[4]

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p  b	t  d		k  ɡ	Ɂ
Labialised Plosive	pw  bw			kw  ɡw
Nasal	m	n
Labialised Nasal	mw
Fricative		s			h
Approximant		j	l	ɰ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

Morphology

Pronouns

Tawala distinguishes three persons: first, second and third. There are only two grammatical numbers, singular and plural although first person plural makes a distinction between inclusive and exclusive.^[5]
Although there are five classes of pronouns in Tawala only the independent pronouns class should be considered as pronouns proper as they are the only class consisting of free forms. The remaining four classes occur with independent pronouns in a phrase.^[6]

Independent Pronouns

Person	Number
	Singular	Plural
1INC	tau	tauta
1EXCL		tauyai
2	tam	taumi
3	tauna	tauhi

Subject Prefix and Object Enclitic

Subject prefixes and object enclitics attach to a verb to mark person and number of both subject and object respectively.

	1SG	2SG	3SG	1PL.INC	1PL.EXC	2PL	3PL
Object Enclitic	-u/we	-m	-ni/ya	-ta	-yai	-mi	-hi
Subject Prefix	a-	u-	i-	ta-	to-	o-	hi-

Example: The following examples demonstrate the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

Tauhi	hai	mae	hi-nonogo-ge-ni.
they	their	stay	3PL-prepare-TRV-3SG
"They prepared their residence."

Possession

Tawala distinguishes alienable and inalienable possession.

Possessive Pronouns

Alienable possession is constructed by a free-standing possessive pronoun that marks the person and number of the possessor.

Person	Number
	Singular	Plural
1INC	u	ata
1EXCL		i
2	om	omi
3	a	hai

Example: The following examples demonstrate the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

Lawa	hai	tano	hi-dewa-hi.
person	POSS.3PL	garden	3PL-make-3PL
"The people made their gardens."

Pronominal Enclitics

Inalienable possession is constructed by attaching a pronominal enclitic to the possessed noun.

Person	Number
	Singular	Plural
1INC	-u/we	-ta
1EXCL		-yai
2	-m	-mi
3	-na	-hi

Example: The following example demonstrates the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

polo	ae-na
pig	leg-POSS.3SG
"The pig's leg."

References

1. Tawala at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Tawala". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
3. Ezrad 1997, p. 6
4. http://wals.info/index, chapters 1-3
5. Ezrad 1997, p. 72
6. Ezrad 1997, p. 72

Bibliography

Ezrad, B 1997, A grammar of Tawala: an Austronesian language of the Milne Bay area, Papua New Guinea, The Australian National University, Canberra.
WALS Online 2011, viewed October 15, 2011, <http://wals.info/>.