Tamambo language

Tamambo vowel chart, from Riehl & Jauncey (2005:257)

/i u/ become [j w] respectively when unstressed and before another vowel. /o/ may also become [w] for some speakers.

The prenasalized postalveolar stop /ᶮɟ/ is often affricated and voiceless, i.e. [ᶮtʃ].

Younger speakers often realize /β/ as [f] initially and [v] medially, while /βʷ/ is often replaced by [w].

/x/ is usually realized as [x] initially, but some speakers use [h]. Medially, it may be pronounced as any of [x ɣ h ɦ ɡ].

Independent pronouns behave grammatically similarly to other NPs in that they can occur in the same slot as a subject NP, functioning as the head of a NP. However, in regular discourse, they are not used a great deal due to the obligatory nature of cross-referencing subject pronouns. Use of independent pronouns is often seen as unnecessary and unusual except in the following situations:

• Indicate person and number of conjoint NP
• Introduce new referent
• Reintroduce referent
• Emphasise participation of known referent

In the instance where two NPs are joined as a single subject, the independent pronoun reflects the number of the conjoint NP:

Ku	vano.
1SG	go
'I went.'

and

Nancy	mo	vano.
Nancy	3SG	go
'Nancy went.'

Thus, merging the two above clauses into one, the independent pronoun must change to reflect total number of subjects:

Kamam	mai	Nancy	ka	vano.
IP:1PL.E	PREP	Nancy	1PL	go
'Nancy and I went.'[8]

When a new referent is introduced into the discourse, the independent pronoun is used. In this case, kamam:

Ne	kamam	mwende	talom,	kamam	ka-le	loli	na	hinau	niaro.
But	IP:1PL.E	particular.one	first	IP:1PL.E	1PL-TA	do	ART	thing	EMPH
'But we who came first, [well] as for us, we do this very thing'[8]

In this example, the IP hinda in the second sentence is used to refer back to tahasi in the first sentence.

Ka	tau	tahasi	mo	sahe,	le	hani.	Hani	hinda	ka-le	biri~mbiri.
1PL	put.in.place	stone	3SG	go.up	TA	burn	burn	IP:1PL.I	1PL-TA	RED~grate
'We put the stones up (on the fire) and it's burning. While it's burning we do the grating [of the yams].'[9]

According to Jauncey,[9] this is the most common use of the IP. Comparing the two examples, the latter placing the emphasis on the subject:

O	vano?
2SG	go
'Are you going?'

and

Niho	o	vano?
IP:2SG	2SG	go
'Are you going?'[10]

Subject pronouns are an obligatory component of a verbal phrase, indicating the person and number of the NP. They can either co-occur with the NP or independent in the subject slot, or exist without if the subject has been deleted through ellipsis or previously known context.

Balosuro	mo-te	sohena.
nowadays	3SG-NEG	the.same
'It's not like that nowadays.'[11]

Object pronouns are very similar looking to independent pronouns, appearing to be abbreviations of the independent pronoun as seen in the pronoun paradigm above. Object pronouns behave similarly to the object NP, occurring in the same syntactic slot, however only one or the other is used, both cannot be used simultaneously as an object argument – which is unusual in Oceanic languages as many languages have obligatory object pronominal cross-referencing on the verb agreeing with NP object.

Mo	iso	ka	turu	ka	vosai-a
3SG	finish	1PL	stand	1PL	cook.in.stones-O:3SG
'Then we bake it in the stones.'[12]

Possessive pronouns substitute for NP possessor, suffixing to the possessed noun in direct possessive constructions or to one the four possessive classifiers in indirect constructions.

Tama-k'	mo	vora	bosinjivo.
Father-POSS:1SG	3SG	be.born	bosinjivo.area
'My father was born in the Bisinjivo area.'[13]

ma-m	ti
CLFR-POSS:2SG	tea
'your tea'[14]

The negative particle -te and negative aspectual tele ‘not yet’ and lete ‘never’ can appear in the same slot of the Verb Phrase, illustrated below:

Both the negative aspectuals appear to be derived from the tense-aspect marker le and the negative particle -te.[15] All the optional modifiers in the VP are mutually exclusive thus; the negative morphemes allow no modifiers between them and the head of the VP.[16]

The negative particle -te which expresses negative polarity on the verb[17] is a bound morpheme, meaning it must be attached to the subject pronominal clitic. The negative particle also occurs immediately before the verb noted in example [105].[18] Furthermore, example [105] demonstrates what Jauncey[19] terms a ‘negative progressive’; a way of expressing the negative in the present tense such as ‘he’s not doing it’ using the negative particle -te. 

The negative aspectuals are used to refer to different aspects of time. The aspectual lete ‘never’ is used to refer to event times that are prior to speech time noted in example [107] and [100].[15]

The negative aspectual tele ‘not yet’ is used only where the events are referring to an event time prior to or simultaneous with speech time noted in example [106] and [103].[18]

In Tamambo, modality can be expressed through the future marker –mbo and the two 3SG subject pronouns, mo (realis) and a (irrealis). In Tamambo realis is ‘the grammatical or lexical marking of an event time or situation that has happened (or not) or is happening (or not) relative to speech time’ and irrealis refers to ‘the grammatical or lexical marking of an event time or situation that may have happened, or that may or may not happen in the future’.[20] In Tamambo, the negative particle -te and aspectual lete can be used in conjunction with the 3SG irrealis a to express that a situation or action is not known to have happened. This is used because the negative markers cannot occur next to the future marker –mbo, however they can occur separately in the same construction evident in example [101][21] containing lete.

In Tamambo, only the 3SG preverbal subject form has a irrealis, thus when -te is used with other preverbal subject pronouns, the time of event can be ambiguous, and phrases must be understood from context and other lexemes.[22] For example, [98][22] illustrates the various interpretations one phrase may have.

The negative verb tete is a part of Tamambo's closed subset of intransitive verbs, meaning that it has grammatical limitations. For example, the verb tete can only be used in conjunction with the 3SG preverbal subject pronominal clitic. The negative verb tete can function with a valency of zero or one.[23] Valency refers to the number of syntactic arguments a verb can have.

The most common use of the verb tete is illustrated in example [59],[23] where the verb has zero valency. 

The 3SG pronoun's of a (irrealis) and mo (realis) are used in conjunction with tete to respond to varying questions depending on whether the answer is certain or not. Example [60][23] illustrates the use of a and tete in a construction to answer a question where the answer is not certain.

However, if the answer is certain than mo and tete are used highlighted in example [61].[23]

If tete functions with a valency of one, then the intransitive subject must precede the verb similar to a prototypical verb phrase. In this situation, 3SG marking can only represent both the singular and plural, highlighted in example [65][24].

Tete can also function with an ‘existential meaning’ illustrated in example [62],[23] to express there was ‘no one/no people’.

The negative verb tete can also be used following a verb in an ambient serial verb construction. In Tamambo, a serial verb construction is defined by Jauncey[25] as ‘a sequence of two or more verbs that combine to function as a single predicate’. Furthermore, the term ambient in this verb construction refers to the phenomena when a verb, which follows a transitive or intransitive verb, makes a predication concerning the previous event rather than the participant.[26] When the negative tete verb is used in an ambient serial verb construction, tete makes a negative predication regarding the event expressed by the previous verb highlighted in example [64] and [65].[27] Furthermore, in this instance it is ungrammatical to insert other words between the negative verb and the previous verb.

Negative realis conditional sentences express an idea that something will happen if the condition is not met, such as an imperative or warning. The sentence outlines the conditions, and includes an ‘otherwise’ or ‘if not’ component.[28] The condition and the ‘if not’ (bolded) component occur together before the main clause illustrated in example [124].[28]