Touo language

Touo
Native to	Solomon Islands
Region	southern Rendova Island, Western Province
Native speakers	1,900 (1999 census)[1]
Language family	Central Solomons Touo;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tqu
Glottolog	touo1238
ELP	Touo[2]

The Touo language is spoken over the southern part of Rendova Island, located in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.

Classification

Touo belongs to the Central Solomons group of the Papuan languages. All the surrounding languages to Touo belong to the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family.

Names

The Touo language is sometimes called the Baniata (Mbaniata) or Lokuru language, after the largest two villages where the language is spoken.[3] The word Touo comes from the ethnonym that Touo speakers use to refer to themselves.

Phonology

Consonants

Touo consonants are:[4]^:869

	bilabial	labiodental	alveolar	velar	glottal
voiceless stop	(p)		t	(k)
voiced stop	b		d	ɡ <q>
voiceless fricative		f	s		h
voiced fricative		v	z
approximant				ɰ <g>
nasal	m		n	ŋ
lateral/rhotic			l

Vowels

Touo vowels have phonemically contrastive tense/lax vowels. Some minimal pairs showing the tense/lax vowel phonemic distinction in Touo:[4]

e	road	ḛ	oven
avo	garden	a̰vo	four
ua	who?	ṵa	eat
isi	small	ḭsi	sleep

Grammar

Word order in Touo is SOV.[4]

Touo has four genders.[4]

masculine
feminine
neuter I (generic)
neuter II (certain trees)

Only in certain paradigms of the singular number can neuter I and II be distinguished.

Touo distinguishes four numbers.[4]

singular
dual
enumerated (i.e., numerically specified; can be used for both few or many numbers)
non-enumerated (i.e., not numerically specified; used for numbers greater than three)

Notes

Touo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Endangered Languages Project data for Touo.
Tryon, D. T.; Hackman, B. D. (1983). Solomon Islands languages: an internal classification. Pacific Linguistics Series C - No. 72. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-C72. hdl:1885/145227. ISBN 978-0-85883-292-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Stebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 775–894. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

Paradisec has two collections of Arthur Cappell's materials (AC1, AC2) that include Touo language materials.

References

Dunn, Michael (2005). "Vernacular Literacy in the Touo Language of the Solomon Islands". Current Issues in Language Planning. 6 (2): 239–250. doi:10.1080/14664200508668283.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Terrill, Angela; Dunn, Michael (2003). "Orthographic design in the Solomon Islands: The social, historical, and linguistic situation of Touo (Baniata)". Written Language & Literacy. 6 (2): 177–192. doi:10.1075/wll.6.2.03ter.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

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[e18-1] Touo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)

[ELP1-2] Endangered Languages Project data for Touo.

[3] Tryon, D. T.; Hackman, B. D. (1983). Solomon Islands languages: an internal classification. Pacific Linguistics Series C - No. 72. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-C72. hdl:1885/145227. ISBN 978-0-85883-292-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

[Stebbins-Island-4] Stebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 775–894. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.