The Avava Language of Central Malakula (Vanuatu)

Terry Crowley
The Australian National University
	John Lynch
02-Chapter 21.pdf
	2 Phonology
		Umbbuul Modern Avava
		Naman Avava
	Phonemic form Orthographic representation
03-Chapter 31.pdf
	3 Nouns and noun phrases
	3.1  Pronouns
	3.2.1  Nominal derivation
	In compounds in which both elements are nouns and either the first or the second element of a nominal compound begins with a vowel, that vowel is also subject to deletion, albeit optionally rather than categorically (§2.1.1.3.2).  Thus:
	3.2.2  Possession
	3.2.2.1  Directly possessed nouns
	3.2.2.2  Indirectly possessed nouns
	Corresponding to the set of possessive pronouns is a separate set of what can be referred to as possessive nominals, which are set out in Table 6.  The singular possessive nominals are derived from the corresponding pronouns by means of the prefixation of tV- (nV- in the first person singular, which is optional), while in the various non-singular categories, tV- is only optionally added.
	These forms can be used to completely replace a possessive noun phrase and function effectively as noun phrases in their own right.  Thus:
	3.2.2.3  Prepositional possession
	3.2.2.4  Preposed possessors
	3.2.2.5  Overlapping categories
	3.2.3 Noun phrase modifiers
	3.2.3.1  Numerals
	Ong ke-ser bbih i na?
	There is a final set of numeral derivatives which will be mentioned here, though these forms actually behave like temporal adverbs and are described in more detail in §5.1.3.2. There is a set of forms derived from the basic numerals itl ‘three’, ivat ‘four’ and ilim ‘five’ to express the meanings of three (etc.) days from now, in the past and in the future. Thus:
	Avava has a counting system which allows for the expression of very large numbers beyond the basic numerals described so far. Cardinal numerals from 11–19 are expressed with the numeral langal ‘ten’ followed by the form druman—which is identical in shape to the directly possessed noun meaning ‘his/her/its body’—and then one of the basic numerals from 1–9.  Thus:
	Decades from 20–90 are expressed by means of the special compounding form of the numeral langal ‘ten’, that is ngal, with one of the following basic numerals, as follows:
	There are also separate numerals expressing the following higher values:
	The plural marker ier, which is identical in shape to the third person plural free-form pronoun (§3.1), can appear at the end of a noun phrase.  For example:
04-Chapter 41.pdf
	4 Verbs and the verb complex
	O-vwel kesan len arup? 2sg:real-come when source garden ‘When did you come from the garden?’
	There is a single verb in Avava which is known to behave irregularly with regard to its subject-mood prefixation and that is the verb ip ‘go’. This verb can, in fact, behave perfectly regularly according to the paradigms presented in §4.1.1 and §4.1.2. However, there is also a competing irregular irrealis paradigm for this verb which is based on the  root ap.   This means that this single verb has the competing irrealis paradigm set out in Table l1.  It should be noted, however, that in the realis, this verb is perfectly regular.  Thus:
	ar-ip  bwer-ap dl:real-go dl:irr-go ‘they (dl.) went’ ‘they (dl.) will go’
	4.2  Negation
	i-per sa-per-mu 3SG:REAL-work 3sg:real:neg-work-NEG ‘(s)he works’ ‘(s)he does not work’
	naba-ka nasaba-ka-mu 1sg:irr:-shout 1sg:irr:neg-shout-neg ‘I will shout’ ‘I will not shout’
05-Chapter 51.pdf
	O-vwel kesan len arup? 2sg:real-come when sp garden ‘When did you come from the garden?’
	O-vwel kesan len arup? 2sg:real-come when sp garden ‘When did you come from the garden?’
	In addition to the morphologically simple temporal markers maran ‘tomorrow’, uwah ‘day after tomorrow’, tenep ‘yesterday’ and tanawah ‘day before yesterday’, there is a set of additional forms which refer to three, four and five days from the present, both in the past and the future. The forms referring to future times involve a prefixed element t(i)- which is added to the historical roots of the basic numerals (§3.2.3.1), while forms referring to times in the past involve the prefixed element bbun(i)-.  We therefore find the following unusually rich paradigmatic set of temporal adverbs in Avava:
	O-ter aga ti wal sive? 2sg:real-cut tree dem cause what ‘Why did you cut down this tree?’
	Ong ke-ser bbih i na? 2sg 2sg:irr-give 3sg:irr-how.many goal 1sg ‘How many will you give me?’
	O-vwel kesan len arup? 2sg:real-come when sp garden ‘When did you come from the garden?’
	O-matur len amal nan iba? 2sg:real-sleep sp house rel where ‘Which house did you sleep in?’