To’abaita language

Toqabaqita/To’abaita
Malu’u
Native to	Solomon Islands
Region	Malaita Island
Native speakers	13,000 (1999)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southeast Solomonic Malaita – San Cristobal Malaita Northern Malaita Toqabaqita/To’abaita
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mlu
Glottolog	toab1237[2]

Toqabaqita/To'abaita Language

Toqabaqita is the language spoken by the people living at the north-western tip of Malaita Island, of South Eastern Solomon Islands. Toqabaqita, also known as To’abaita as well as To’ambaita, Malu and Malu’u is an Austronesian language.^[3] The website Ethnologue records the number of speakers of Toqabaqita as 12,600 in 1999.^[4] Lichtenberk, who has written an extensive grammar of Toqabaqita reports that Toqabaqita may be part of a North Malaita group of dialects which includes Baeguu, Baelelae and Fataleka, and possibly Lau. Ethnologue however reports no known dialects of Toqabaqita, but reports that within this group of languages, they are mutually intelligible.^[5] Lichtenberk points out that the speakers of Toqabaqita do recognize similarities across the whole island’s languages, but the Toqabaqita people themselves do not have this conception of North Malaita being a language and Toqabaqita as a dialect within this group.^[6] Toqabaqita is classified as member of the Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central-Eastern Oceanic, Southeast Solomonic language family. Then there is a slight divergence in classification between Lichtenberk and Glottolog.^[7] Lichetenberk classifies the next subgrouping as Longgu/Malaita/Makira (San Crisobel), whereas Glottolog does not include Longgu at this point, but instead as a sister subgroup to Malaita/Makira.^[8] The Wikipedia entry for Longgu, which is a Southeast Solomonic language spoken on Guadalcanal, is reported to be originally from Malaita. Lichtenberg then breaks the Malaita/Makira subgroup into the Central/Northern and Southern Malaita subgroups, then North Malaita subgroup itself, to which Toqabaqita belongs.^[9] In contrast Glottolog breaks the subgroup Malaita/ San Cristobel (Makira) into two subgroups Malaita/Makira and Longgu, then to North and south Malaita subgroups, where the north includes the above listed putative dialects as well as the central Malaita languages.^[10] The number of speakers of Toqabaqita is relatively high for a Solomon Islands language, although most speakers become bilingual in Pijin as they grow up. Toqabaqita has the status of first language for children, and ís used in daily life. Many Toqabaqita speakers also speak some English, and this is the language of the schools, although only primary schools are available locally.^[11] The literacy rate in Toqabaqita is 30-60%, and Latin script is used.^[12]

Phonology

Toqabaqita phonemes consist of 17 consonants and 5 vowels.^[13]

Consonant phonemes^[14]

		Bilabial	Interdental	Dental	Velar	Labial-velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n	ŋ
Stop	voiceless			t	k	k͡p	ʔ
	voiced	b		d	g	g͡b
Fricative		ɸ	θ	s
Approximant						w
Leteral				l
Trill				r

/k͡p/ and /g͡b/ are doubly articulated, labial-velar plosives.^[15] Pre-nasalization is a feature of particular Toqabaqita consonants, including all the voiced plosives, that is /b/, /d/, /g/ and /g͡b/, and for the glide /w/ . The degree of prenasalization varies and is determined by their position in the word.^[16]

Vowel Phonemes^[17]

	front	central	back
close	ɪ		ʊ
open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
open		a

Vowels can be long, but it is not allowed to have to adjacent long vowels. Stress is not indicated by the phonemes, but by the symbols (’) for primary stress and (’) for secondary stress.^[18]

Language Typology

Toqabaqita has as its basic constituent order Subject - Predicate – X, with X referring to other elements that the subject and predicate.^[19] This can also be categorized as SVO (subject verb object) and SVX (subject verb other). Lynch in his review of Oceanic languages found that this constituent order is in fact the most widely geographically distributed pattern.^[20]

Verbs in Toqabaqita can include a variety of affixes, both suffixes and pre-fixes, which mark other grammatical categories of tense aspect, sequentiality and negation. Lexical objects are usually indexed on the verb as a suffix. In Toqabaqita the basic noun phrase consists minimally of a noun or an independent personal pronoun. Noun phrases may contain modifiers, which are generally suffixes.^[21] Lexical morphemes consist of at least two syllables in Toqabaqita. Where a monosyllabic word occurs, such as a grammatical morpheme, it then attaches as a clitic to the preceding word, with some notable exceptions. If speech is slow then the grammatical morpheme may have its vowel lengthened and take stress.^[22]

Personal Pronouns and Person Markers

Independent Personal Pronouns

The Independent person pronouns in Toqabaqita are for single, dual and plural pronouns for first person exclusive, first person inclusive, second and third person categories. With only a few systematic exceptions the pronominal noun phrases are used in the same position as where a lexical noun phrase would occur. Lexical nouns are marked only as singular or plural in Toqabaqita.^[23]

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1 EXCL	nau	kamareqa	kamiliqa, kamaliqa, kami(1)
1 INCL		koro	kulu, kia(1)
2	qoe, qoo	kamaroqa	kamuluqa, kamaluqa,kamiu(1), kamu(1)
3	nia	keeroqa	kera, kiiluqa

Examples:

{|

| (1) ||nau|| ku|| thathami-a|| koro|| koki|| |- | ||1SG ||1SG.NFUT ||want-3.OBJ ||DU(INCL) ||DU(INCL).FUT || |- | ||colspan="9"| "I want the two of us to eat." |}^[24]

{|

| (2) ||kamiliqa|| kori-a|| fau|| rafu|| |- | ||1PL(EXCL) ||scrape-3.OBJ ||stone ||sea.cucumber.sp || |- | ||colspan="9"| "We scrape limestone..." |}^[25]
The variants marked with * were used exclusively by women. Of these pronouns used only by women, only the first person inclusive plural pronoun kia is used at the present time. This is specifically in the context of referring to one’s home, or one’s home place or one’s country most commonly when away from one’s home area’.^[26] It is notable that although there are multiple plural personal pronouns some are used more commonly than others. Some alternatives are rarely used, specifically these are the first person exclusive kamaliqa, the third person plural kiiluqa, and the second person singular qoo. Both forms of the second person plural, kamuluqa and kamaluqa are commonly used. There are phonetic associations with specific person pronouns. The dual pronouns all contain r, and the plurals all contain l, with exception of the third person plural kera. Lichtenberk suggests that this is due to their associations with the numbers rua which glosses as two, and ulu which glosses as three, and also that perhaps the plurals were previously trial or paucal forms of pronouns.^[27]

In some cases the where the independent pronoun and a subject marker are identical (homophones) and occur in the same sentence one will be omitted, and Lichtenberk (2008) suggests it is the pronoun that is omitted. This occurs for koro, where it is both the inclusive dual inclusive independent personal pronoun and the dual inclusive nonfuture subject marker. Similarly kulu is both the plural inclusive independent plural pronoun and the plural inclusive nonfuture subject marker. Lichtenberk believes that most speakers would avoid the repetition.^[28]

{|

| (3) ||(?kulu)|| kulu|| foqa|| naqa|| |- | ||PL(INCL) ||PL(INCL).NFUT ||pray ||PRF || |- | ||colspan="9"| "Let's pray now" |}^[29]
In the above example the first kulu would be deleted. The independent personal pronouns, including the third person pronouns are used with human reference, or with spirits, very rarely with animals. The may be used with mythological animals or with an animal that is in view.

{|

| (4) ||Nia|| ka|| riki-a|| ma|| ka|| thathami-a|| kai|| lai|| bii|| keeroqa|| |- | ||3SG ||3SG.SEQ ||see.3SG.OBJ ||and ||3SG.SEQ ||want-3.OBJ ||3.SG.FUT ||go ||COM ||3DU || |- | ||colspan="9"| "He (a boy)saw it and wanted to go with them (his parents)" |}^[30]

{|

| (5) ||Nia|| e|| mataqi|| nena|| |- | ||3SG ||3SG.NFUT ||be.sick ||N.PAST.THERE || |- | ||colspan="9"| "It (a chicken)is sick (the chicken is in view)" |}^[31]
The third person pronoun can be used to specify subject topicalization, even with inanimate objects, as is:

{|

| (6) ||dadaku)|| qeri|| nia|| qe|| takwi|| qi'|| laa||one|| |- | ||Calophyllum.sp ||that ||3SG ||3SG.NFUT ||that ||stand ||LOC ||in ||<smallsand || |- | ||colspan="9"| "The dadaku tree, it stood in the sand on the beach" |}^[32]
There are numerous specific uses of the independent personal pronouns such as the third person singular pronoun being used to close off a story or a narration, in a verb-less statement:

{|

| (7) ||Nia|| bo-naqa|| neri|| |- | ||3SG ||ASRT=PRF ||N.PAST>HERE || |- | ||colspan="9"| "That's all I have to say" |}^[33]
To emphasize a pronoun the same strategies that are used with lexical nouns are also employed, but with a specific pronominal foregrounder ni.

{|

| (8) ||Nau|| ku|| lae|| naqa|| ma|| ni|| kamuluqa|| |- | ||1SG ||1SG.NFUT ||go ||PRF ||and ||PROFORE ||2PL || |- | ||colspan="9"| "I'm going now; and you?)" |}^[34]
Here the emphasis is on the persons being spoken to. The inclusive pronouns can be used in a way to include the addressee, to index personal closeness or in a jocular sense.

{|

| (9) ||Nau|| kwai|| qasi-qaba|| fas=i|| laa|| waki|| koro|| wane|| nau|| |- | ||1SG ||1SG.FUT ||fall-hand ||PREC=LOC ||in ||basket ||DU(INCL) ||man ||1SG || |- | ||colspan="9"| "I am going to poke my hand into our basket, my friend (in the context of searching another's basket for tobacco or areca nut." |}^[35]

Person Markers

Toqabaqita uses person markers with proper nouns that designate people, spirits, ogres, pets and domestic animals. They are gender differentiated, with tha used with male and ni with female people. When referring to gods and spirits and introduced Christian deities, tha is used. Tha is used to refer to all pets and domestic animals, both male and female. They are used for reference not for address, see examples 11 and 12, but even then they are not obligatory.^[36]

{|

| (10) ||Tha|| Kwaqengara|| ka|| thare-a|| ni|| Kwakwanumae|| |- | ||PRSMKR ||Kwaqengara ||3.SG.SEQ ||beget-3.OBJ ||PRSMKR/small> ||Kwakwanumae || |- | ||colspan="9"| "Kwaqengara(male) begot Kwakwanumae(female)." |}^[37]
Contrast the need for a person marker when talking about Ulufaala the named person in the narration, rather than when he arrives in person.

{|

| (11) ||Ma|| tha|| Ulufaalu|| qe|| sifo|| |- | ||And ||PRSMKR ||Ulufaalu ||3SG.NFUT ||descend || |- | ||colspan="9"| "And Ulufaalu went down to the coast?." |}^[38]

{|

| (12) ||Ulufaalu|| qe|| fula|| naqa|| |- | ||Ulufaalu ||3SG.NFUT ||arrive ||PRF || |- | ||colspan="9"| "Ulufaalu has arrived." |}^[39]

{|

| (13) ||Qoko|| suqu-si-a|| raa-la-na|| wane|| queri|| tha|| Saetana|| |- | ||2SG.SEQ ||block-TR3.OBJ ||work.NMZL.PERS ||man ||this ||PRSMKR ||Satan || |- | ||colspan="9"| "Block the workings of this man, Satan." |}^[40]

Tha is used with the nouns that refer to children, wela (child, young person), kale (offspring), or adult males , weleqi.

{|

| (14) ||Tha|| wela|| 'ba=e|| sui|| naqa|| |- | ||PRSMKR ||chap ||that=3.SG.NFUT ||be.finished ||PRF || |- | ||colspan="9"| "The chap expired." |}^[41]
Tha is used for inanimate objects that actually have names.

{|

| (15) ||Nini|| qau|| marakawa|| nia|| tha|| Raqafeqebasi|| |- | ||bamboo.knife ||piece.of.bamboo ||be.green ||3SG ||PRSMKR ||Raqafeqebasi || |- | ||colspan="9"| "His green bamboo knife is named Raqafeqebasi." |}^[42]

Object Pronouns

In Toqabaqita there are two classes of transitive verbs, Class 1 and Class 2, and they index their pronominal direct objects differently. Class 1 transitives have object indexing suffixes only for the third person; -a for singular direct objects, -daroqa for dual categories and -da for plural objects.^[43]

{|

| (16) ||Qo|| riki-a?|| |- | ||2SG.NFUT ||see-3SG.OBJ || |- | ||colspan="9"| "Did you see him/her/it?" |}^[44]

{|

| (17) ||Qo|| riki-daroqa?|| |- | ||2SG.NFUT ||see-3DU.OBJ || |- | ||colspan="9"| "Did you see them(2)?" |}^[45]
Toqabaqita doesn't index object status first and second person, but it is indicated by the appropriate independent personal pronoun as in (18).

{|

| (18) ||Kai|| lole|| qoe|| |- | ||3SG.IPFV ||tell.lie.to ||2SG || |- | ||colspan="9"| "He is lying to you." |}^[46]
Class 2 Transitive verbs have object indexing suffixes for all grammatical persons and numbers, and follow a similar pattern to the independent personal pronouns.^[47]

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1EXCL	-ku	-mareqa	-miliqa, -maliqa, -mi(1), miqa(1)
1INCL		-karoqa	-kuluqa, -kaluqa, -ka(1)
2	-mu	-maroqa	-muluqa, -maluqa, -miu(1)
3	-na, -a	-daroqa	-da, -daluqa

Again there are forms that were previously used only by women, in women's speech, that are no longer used. For the third person singular there are two forms -na and -a, and their use is often phonologically determined, in particular so there are no sequences of three vowels.^[48]

{|

| (19) ||taqe-fuil-a|| maka|| nia|| |- | ||ascend-site.3.OBJ ||father ||3SG || |- | ||colspan="9"| "(of a son)replace his father." |}^[49]

{|

| (20) ||Nia|| biinga|| qa-na|| qe|| aqi|| si|| thaitoqoma-na|| |- | ||3SG ||sleep ||SBEN-3SG.PERS ||3SG.NFUT ||NEGV ||know-3SG.OBJ || |- | ||colspan="9"| "He was asleep(and) didn't know (about) it." |}^[50]
The -na object pronoun is used here in (20) to follow the vowel a.

Subject Pronouns

Toqabaqita has subject indexing suffixes which appear on the verb and also indicate nonfuture tense, future tense, imperfect aspect, sequentiality, negative aspect and dehortation.^[51] There is some suffixes that are the same in the third person dual and plural categories. It is interesting to observe that there are no archaic women's speech forms noted by Lichtenberk.

	nonfuture	future/imperfect	sequential	negative	dehortive
1SG	ku	kwai	kwa	kwasi	kwata
2SG	qo, qoi	qoki	qoko	qosi	qoto
3SG	qe, e	kai	ka	si	ta
1DU(EXCL)	mere	meki	meka	mesi	meta
1DU(INCL)	koro	koki	koka,koko	kosi	kota
2DU	moro, mori	moki	moka, moko	mosi	mota
3DU	kero	keki,kiki	keko, kiku	kesi, kisi	keto
1PL(EXCL)	mili	miki	mika	misi	mita
1PL(INCL)	kulu	kuki	kuka	kusi	kuta
2PL	mulu	muki	muka,muku	musi	muta
3L	kera, kere, kilu	keki, kiki	keka, kiku	kesi, kisi	keta

.^[52]

{|

| (21) ||Mada|| sa|| mika|| fula|| qi|| qusungadi|| ka|| leqa|| ba-na|| |- | ||or ||IRR ||1PL(EXCL).SEQ ||arrive ||LOC ||tomorrow ||3SG.SEQ ||be.good || LIM-3SG.PERS || |- | ||colspan="9"| "If we come tomorrow, will that be alright? (lit.:will that only be good?)" |}^[53]

{|

| (22) ||Wela|| qeri|| roo|| qaaqae|| nia|| ki'|| qe|| taqaa|| |- | ||child ||that ||two ||3SG ||PL ||3SG.NFUT ||be.bad || |- | ||colspan="9"| "The child, both of his legs are no good." |}^[54]

Possession

Possession in Toqabaqita is relational in that there are two entities in the relationship the “possessor” and the “possessum”. The possessor may own an item, it may be a body part, or a tool. But this also includes relationships with the person or item, including a kinship relationship. Lichtenberk prefers to term these “personal suffixes” as they not only index possession, but also with a transitive verb to index their subject, to indicate a recipient/beneficiary relationship, and to index a complement with a number of prepositions. These suffixes can be used with both lexical nouns and verbs. It can be seen that some of these suffixes are identical with the singular object pronoun suffixes, namely -ku, -na, and -a.^[55]

	singular	dual	plural
1EXCL	-ku	-mareqa	-miliqa,maliqa, -mi(1), -miqa(1)
1INCL		-karoqa	-kuluqa, -kulaqa, -ka(1)
2	-mu	-maroqa	-muluqa, -maluqa, miu(1)
3	-na, -a	-daroqa	-da, daluqa

^[56] Again there are forms previously used by women in speech, that are no longer used, marked (1). In terms of semantics the personal suffixes are used with relational nouns where the relationship is described as inalienable possession. This includes parts of a whole (24), body parts (23,27), products of a possessor (25,26) and integral contents such as blood of animal or juice of a fruit.^[57]

{|

| (23) ||gwalusu-ku|| |- | ||nose-1SG.PERS |- | ||colspan="9"| "my nose" |}^[58]

{|

| (24) ||boor-a|| kilu|| |- | ||bottom-3SG.PERS ||hole || |- | ||colspan="9"| "the bottom of a hole" |}^[59]

{|

| (25) ||qiiqida-ku|| |- | ||sweat-1SG.PERS || |- | ||colspan="9"| "my sweat" |}^[60]

{|

| (26) ||nuu-na|| |- | ||Shadow/reflection/picture-3SG.PRS || |- | ||colspan="9"| "A man's shadow/reflection/picture" |}^[61]

{|

| (27) ||babali-na|| |- | ||check-3SG.PERS || |- | ||colspan="9"| "his/her cheek(s)" |}^[62]
From a phontactic point of view words with –l or-r in the syllable use third person singular –na, as in example (27). Attributes as well as spatial and temporal relations of the possessor are also designated with these personal suffixes, as in example (28).^[63]

{|

| (28) ||qintoqo-na|| biqu|| naqi|| |- | ||LOC centre-3SG.PERS ||house ||this || |- | ||colspan="9"| "In the centre of this house." |}^[64]
Toqabaqita also employs the bare possessive noun phrase where there is no indexing of the possessor on the possessed noun. A Possessor noun phrase must be present, this may be a lexical noun or a pronoun. The two following examples display this, in that a possessor noun phrase is pronominal, and it is the independent personal pronoun that is employed. In this manner all the independent pronouns can be bare possessor nouns.^[65]

{|

| (29) ||biqu|| keeroqa|| na=i|| Takwaraasi|| |- | ||house ||3DU ||REL=LOC ||Takwarassi || |- | ||colspan="9"| "Their house at Takwaraasi." |}^[66]

{|

| (30) ||tarausis|| tekwa|| nau|| baa|| |- | ||trousers ||be.long ||1SG ||that || |- | ||colspan="9"| "Those long trousers of mine." |}^[67]

Footnotes

1. Toqabaqita/To’abaita at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "To'abaita". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
3. Lichtenberk, 2008, p.1
4. Lewia, 2015
5. Lichtenberk, 2008, p.1
6. Lichtenberk, 2008
7. Hammarström, 2015
8. Hammarström, 2015
9. Lichtenberk 2008, p.5
10. Hammarström, 2015
11. Lichtenberk, 2008
12. Hammarström, 2015
13. Lichtenberk, 2008
14. Lichtenberk 2008, p.8
15. Lichtenberk 2008, p.8
16. Lichtenberk, 2008, p.8
17. Lichtenberk, 2008, p.10
18. Lichtenberk 2008, p.10
19. Lichtenberk, 2008, p.43
20. Lynch, 2008, p.50
21. Lichtenberk 2008, p.44
22. Lichtenberk 2008, p.16
23. Lichtenberk 2008, p.325
24. Lichtenberk 2008, p.146
25. Lichtenberk 2008, p.148
26. Lichtenberk, 2008, p.243
27. Lichtenberk, 2008
28. Lichtenberk 2008, p.244
29. Lichtenberk 2008, p.243
30. Lichtenberk 2008, p.245
31. Lichtenberk 2008, p.246
32. Lichtenberk 2008, p.246
33. Lichtenberk 2008, p.247
34. Lichtenberk 2008, p.248
35. Lichtenberk 2008, p.249
36. Lichtenberk, 2008, p.250
37. Lichtenberk 2008, p.250
38. Lichtenberk 2008, p.251
39. Lichtenberk 2008, p.250
40. Lichtenberk 2008, p.328
41. Lichtenberk 2008, p.252
42. Lichtenberk 2008, p.253
43. Lichtenberk 2008, p.71
44. Lichtenberk 2008, p.71
45. Lichtenberk 2008, p.71
46. Lichtenberk 2008, p.71
47. Lichtenberk 2008, p.114
48. Lichtenberk 2008, p.114
49. Lichtenberk 2008, p.71
50. Lichtenberk 2008, p.71
51. Lichtenberk 2008, p.143
52. Lichtenberk 2008, p.144
53. Lichtenberk 2008, p.147
54. Lichtenberk 2008, p.151
55. Lichtenberk 2008, p.376
56. Lichtenberk 2008, p.376
57. Lichtenberk 2008, p.378
58. Lichtenberk 2008, p.379
59. Lichtenberk 2008, p.379
60. Lichtenberk 2008, p.380
61. Lichtenberk 2008, p.380
62. Lichtenberk 2008, p.379
63. Lichtenberk 2008, p.379
64. Lichtenberk 2008, p.380
65. Lichtenberk 2008, p.384
66. Lichtenberk 2008, p.384
67. Lichtenberk 2008, p.384

References

• Lichtenberk, F. 2008. A Grammar of Toqabaqita. De Gruyter:Berlin/Boston.
• Lewis, M. P., Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. 2015. Ethnoloq. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Eighteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Available online at http://www.ethnologue.com Accessed 2015-03-23.)
• Lynch,J. 2002. Typological Overview in Oceanic Languages. Curzon.
• Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspelmath, Martin & Bank, Sebastian. 2015. Glottolog 2.4. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at http://glottolog.org, Accessed on 2015-04-07.)