Akei language
Akei, or Tasiriki, is an Oceanic language or dialect spoken in southwestern coastal Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu, centred in the village of Tasiriki. In 1981, it was estimated to have 650 speakers.
Names
Other names for Akei are Eralado, Ipayato, Lamarakai, Marino, Navaka, Penantsiro, Pilipili, Tasiriki and Wailapa, presumably based on the areas where it is spoken. The alternate name Tasiriki literally means "small water".Classification
Akei is generally described as a language, but also as a dialect of the proposed, lexicostastically defined Southwest Santo language along with Araki, Tangoa, and Wailapa. It has also been described as a dialect chain, with its dialects on either end of the chain not being mutually intelligible with each other.Phonology
Akei's vowels are a, e, i, o, and u. Its consonants are r, l, k,Grammar
Nouns
Akei has no articles.Akei mostly lacks grammatical gender, although for some nouns denoting relationships the feminine is marked by the prefix ve-. In other cases, natural sex is indicated by separate words or by takuni or pita following the noun.
Plurals are unmarked and are shown only by juxtaposition of an adjective or pronoun. In enumeration the word ravai precedes and forms the plural of relationship nouns.
Agent nouns are formed by the word takuni "man" followed by a word indicating the action.
Demonyms are formed by the word marai preceding the place name, in both singular and plural. The word pita precedes in the feminine. The word mera can also be used.
In many cases, the noun is omitted and implied by context.
Pronouns
The following table contains Akei's personal pronouns.Akei has a clusivity distinction: a grammatical difference between inclusive and exclusive first person pronouns. The inclusive form is used when including the addressee, whereas the exclusive form excludes them.
There is a single demonstrative pronoun, nake, meaning "this" or "that". This may be preceded by the third person pronouns inia and inira to mark singularity or plurality: inia nake "this", "that"; inira nake "these", "those". The interrogative pronouns are isei "who?", sava "what?" and savai "what is?". Indefinite pronouns include te "any", tese'ese "anyone", mo'ese "one", vavono "other", te tuenira "some, others", povi "all, every", and inira povi "everyone".
The reflexive or intensive pronoun is 'ase "self, by one's self, alone" followed by a suffixed possessive pronoun. Tambu is also used. See the following table:
There are shortened forms of the subject and object pronouns, used either as an affix or as separate words.
There is no shortened form of the second person plural and first person exclusive plural object pronouns; the full pronoun is used instead.
Possession
A noun in the genitive case follows the head noun.In regard to possession, there are essentially two classes of noun. Head nouns of the first class are suffixed with -ni if the genitive noun is also of the first class. First class nouns suffix the pronoun to show possession, including when the noun is used as a preposition.
If the genitive noun is of the second class, the head noun is suffixed with -i. Connecting a second class head noun and its genitive are the particles no for general possession, 'a for food and drink, and pula for property generally. No is suffixed -ni and is placed in between the head and its genitive.
The pronoun is suffixed to these particles, and precedes the noun. See the following table with no as the example:
The possessive pronouns pulaku, pulam, and pulana correspond to the English "mine", "thine", "his", etc; they are used without a noun his that sent me".
The preposition isi "with" is used with a suffixed pronoun as a possessive.
Verbs
A noun may be used as a verb, although the verb may also be entirely different from the noun. Verbs may be transitive or intransitive; in the former case, the object pronoun is suffixed.Akei has a zero copula; the predicate simply follows the subject so", inau Pero "I. Negation is shown by the particle kei, which follows the tense particles.
Causativity is indicated with the verb vei "to do, to make" in a separate phrase.
Passivity is indicated with a third person plural pronoun in the active. The subject is sometimes omitted.
The verb pinisi "to know", and its negative equivalent kei pinisi indicate ability or inability and precede the main verb.
The interrogative mood is identical to that of the indicative, unless an interrogative adverb or pronoun is used.
The imperative mood is expressed with the second person present pronouns, and similarly with the hortative in the other persons. The prohibitive and dehortative moods are expressed with takai, which can be used with or without the particle and pronouns. The verb 'are "to allow" expresses permission.
To express the subjunctive, one sentence simply follows the other I may, and likewise with the conditional he sleep, he will again. Alternatively, for the subjunctive, the noun mata with a pronominal suffix is added to the end of the sentence.
The particle le, following the tense particle, indicates repetition of an action, and misi indicates continuance.
Tense
The particle mo indicates the present tense. It is abbreviated to -m suffixed to the shortened form of the subject pronoun, except for the third person singular, where the particle is used on its own.The particle te indicates the past tense, following the shortened form of the subject pronoun. However, like the present tense, the particle is used without the preceding pronoun for the third person singular.
The future tense is indicated by pai following the shortened form of the subject pronoun. Note the third person singular i is used before pai, in contrast to the other tenses.
Adjectives
Adjectives can be a single morpheme, a compound or prefixed with ma-. A noun or verb may be used as an adjective without change to its form. Adjectives follow their noun.Comparatives are formed using statements. The word nasa "only" denotes a superlative.
Adverbs
The verbs masa'a "to go up", masivo "to go down", mai "to come", vano "to go", rovo'i "to flee", when used with other verbs, become adverbs meaning "up, down, hither, hence, away". Masa'a and masivo lose their prefix ma-.Interrogative adverbs include na nisa? "when? ", nisa? "when? ", matai sava? "why?" .
Other adverbs include ereri'i "now", na 'aireni "today", na poni alo "yesterday", na malana "tomorrow", na mataravi nake "tonight", na pon "last night", na uluirani "in the morning", na mataravi "in the evening", mo poriri'i "when it was dark", na poni naki "at that time, then", vila "quickly", na nosa "at first", na muri "before", va 'ese "immediately", na poni povi "at all times, always", kiae "here", ae "there", kikue "yonder", ravi "near", zaravono "afar", se'ena "thus, so, as", matana tu'u nake "therefore" (literally "because of thing that", e.g. matana tu'u nake nam tapara nasa "therefore I rejoice greatly", nasa "very, exceedingly".
Prepositions
The locative preposition is na. It is also used referring to motion to or from a place, except with proper nouns this place", but te tara'i Ijipt "he came. Na can also be used as an instrumental.'ini means "about, concerning" and is used with the object pronouns. 'Ini becomes instrumental at the end of a verbal phrase. Isi means "to, with, from a person".
Many prepositions come from nouns; in these cases they are used with the possessive suffixes and the locative na. Some examples are 'ere "before", 'e'e "beside", valibu "the middle", vava "under", koko "under", lolo "inside", valu "outside", and zeni "stead". Other prepositions are verbal; some examples are ta'u "after" and kalili "round about". Ta'u may also be equivalent to the English "with".
Conjunctions
The word mata with suffixes means "because". The verb mai "to come" means "until". The word kuain at the beginning of a sentence indicates doubt or hesitation. Akei lacks copulative, disjunctive, conditional or illative conjunctions.Numbers
Akei uses a quinary numeral system, with a distinct word for ten. The numbers are treated as verbs and prefixed with the particle mo, and, for the numbers six to nine, a second particle 'a is added. The particle ravu is also used for some numbers. When a cardinal numeral refers to a person, it is preceded by pen or peni.| Akei | English |
| mo 'ese | one |
| mo rua | two |
| mo tolu | three |
| mo vati | four |
| mo lima | five |
| mo 'a'ese | six |
| mo ravu 'arua | seven |
| mo ravu 'atolu | eight |
| mo ravu 'a vati | nine |
| mo sanavulu | ten |
| mo sanavulu komana mo 'ese | eleven |
| mo sanavulu komana mo rua | twelve |
| mo navulurua | twenty |
| mo navulutolu | thirty |
| napsanavulu | hundred |
| mo napsanavulu mo va'arua | two hundred |
| mo napsanavulu mo va'asanavulu | thousand |
Instead of sanavulu, navulu with a number affixed refers to twenty, thirty and so on. The multiplicative va'a is used for the hundreds above the first. Thousands above the first also use a multiplicative.
Turumuri means "first", whereas other ordinals are formed by the suffix -na. In compounds, this suffix is added to the other components as well as to the noun. Before a noun, -na changes to -i and is accompanied by the particle 'a.
Multiplicatives are formed by prefixing va'a-, except for the number one which uses va'-. Distributives are formed by reduplication.
Selected vocabulary
The list below is a selected sample of words in Akei.| Akei | English |
| maci | fish |
| biriu | dog |
| utu | louse |
| laiau | tree |
| rauna | leaf |
| benubenu | skin |
| kae | blood |
| sui | bone |
| kalina | ear |
| mata | eye |
| lanisu | nose |
| ako | tooth |
| meme | tongue |
| pau | knee |
| lima | hand |
| susu | breast |
| mape | liver |
| unu | drink |
| talesia | see |
| ronoa | hear |
| mate | die |
| mae | come |
| mata alo | sun |
| macoe | star |
| wae | water |
| sule | stone |
| apu | fire |
| sala | path |
| patibuti | mountain |
| poni | night |
| abuni | new |
| isa | name |
| io | yes |
| akei | no |
Sample text
Genesis 1.1-5 in Akei:- Na muri God te veia tuka, tano.
- Tano tele'e ozo tanopilo; pon tumbumalate te le'e na bua'a: talumen God te Vovi na ului ai.
- Talena God, I pai mamara: te mamara.
- God te lesia mamara, inia mo vure'a: God te sinkalai mamara, koko'a.
- Mamara God te tia 'esana rani, koko'a te tia 'esana poni. Mataravi uluirani, pon mo 'ese.
- Talena God, Zara vitinana i pai le'e na valibu'ira ai, i pai sinkalara ai.
- God te veia zara vitinana, te sinkalara ai ram le'e atano 'inia zara vitinana, ram le 'e na uluna: inia se'ena.
- Zara vitinana God te tia 'esana tuka. Mataravi uluirani, pon ruana.
- In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
- And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
- And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
- And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
- And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
- And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
- And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
- And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.