Maskelynes language


Maskelynes, or Kuliviu, is an Oceanic language spoken on the Maskelyne Islands off south Malekula, Vanuatu.

Phonology

Consonants

  • are in free variation as unreleased or unvoiced word-finally or before a consonant
  • * is also in free variation as nasal word-finally, especially among young speakers
  • is realized as a voiceless among some speakers, especially young
  • are unreleased word-finally or before a consonant
  • lose their labialization word-finally when not followed by a vowel and before
  • * is in free variation as trilled before and sometimes before
  • is before voiced consonants
  • are before voiceless consonants and word-finally
  • is in free variation with for some speakers
  • are vocalic when in nucleus following

    Vowels

  • is near-close between front consonants
  • is close-mid word-finally
  • is after labiovelarized consonants or before
  • are realised as single morphemes,
  • is realised as front between front consonants, and near-close when proceeded or preceded by back consonants
  • is front between front consonants

    Voiceless vowel

A voiceless occurs at the ends of words. It is uncertain if it is an allophone of or a separate phoneme

Phonotactics

Possible syllable structures in Maskelynes: V

Orthography

Grammar

Verbs

The verbs of Maskelynes are agglutinative, mostly being modified by prefixes, though the stem of a verb can stand on its own. These prefixes encode for, in order of appearance in verb: 1. tense-aspect-modes; 2. subject, person and number; 3. various modes, including realis and irrealis; 4. two tense-modes; 5. reduplication. The object of a sentence is encoded by a suffix.
Examples of verbal agglutination:

Reduplication

Reduplication in Maskelynes has various usages, and can encode for e.g. plurality, habituality, iterative aspect, etc.