Futuna-Aniwa language


Futuna-Aniwa is a language spoken in the Tafea Province of Vanuatu on the outlier islands of Futuna and Aniwa. The language has approximately 1,500 speakers. It is a Polynesian language, part of the Austronesian language family.
It is occasionally called West Futunan to distinguish it from East Futunan spoken on the islands of Futuna and Alofi in Wallis and Futuna.

Phonology

The phonology of Futuna-Aniwa is mostly similar to the phonology of Polynesian. However, there are some elements that are not consistent in Futuna-Aniwa with Polynesian. For example, in Futuna-Aniwa both l and r are present, although is it not the same in Polynesian normally. Similarly, another distinction can be made between /s/ and /ʃ/ in Futuna, and /s/ and /tʃ/ in Aniwa, which is also not normal in Polynesian.
LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Nasals
Plosives
Fricatives
Rhotic
Lateral

/p/ - Devoiced bilabial unaspirated plosive, initial and medial.
/t/ - Denti-alveolar devoiced unaspirated plosive, initial and medial.
/k/ - Devoiced velar unaspirated plosive, front and back varieties depending on neighbouring vowel but not differing phonemically; initial and medial.
/m/ - Voiced bilabial nasal, initial and medial.
/n/ - Voiced denti-alveolar nasal; initial and medial.
/ŋ/ - Voiced velar nasal, initial and medial.
/f/ - Voiceless bilabial fricative in both languages, but often occurring in Aniwa for Futuna v; initial and medial.
/l/ - Voiced alveolar lateral, fricative, initial, medial.
/r/ - Voiced lingual flapped alveolar consonant, sometimes practically fricative, without phonemic difference.
/s/ - Voiceless alveolar sibilant, initial and medial.
/ʃ/ - Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative with some lip-rounding. Futuna sound, to which /tʃ/ corresponds in Aniwa; initial and medial.
Unrounded FrontCentralRounded Back
Highiu
Mideo
Lowa

/i/ - High front unrounded vowel, of moderate tenseness, but relaxed if unstressed. Occurs in all positions.
/e/ - Open mid front unrounded vowel, phonetically in all positions.
/a/ - Low open vowel in all positions.
/o/ - Open mid back rounded vowel, phonetically , occurs in all positions.
/u/ - High back rounded vowel, corresponding to /i/ as regards tenseness; all positions. Before and after vowels /l/ and /u/ become semivowels.
Looking at the information provided above, it is important to note out the variations of Aniwa compared to Futuna. The most important and recognizable variations from a multiple number of other variations is extreme palatalisation of dental consonants before front high and mid vowels, which also in some cases involves n-. An example of this is te/ti in Futuna is normally represented as ce/ci in Aniwa. Compared to Futuna, in Aniwa the velar plosive is backed more regularly, therefore k, q, and y is heard. This is shown most of the time, but there is a little freedom in variation. /k/ is retained before front vowels, word-initially, and before diphthongal clusters, /k/ becomes /q/ before /a/, and /k/ becomes /y/ before /o/. The rule itself first shows that there is consciousness of the word and not just the utterance and secondly, the exceptions may show native ideas of boundaries and junctures. These are the main differences between the two dialects, however, it is noted by Capell that the data collected is not accurate or fully reliable from that particular village.

Morphology

Pronoun and Person markers

Pronouns in Futuna-Aniwa distinguish for four numbers and for first, second and third persons. The distinction of trial and plural in a Polynesian language is an unusual feature of Futuna-Aniwa.
There are primarily five different sets of pronominal forms in Futuna-Aniwa: personal, possessive, interrogative, emphatic, and demonstrative. In some circumstances, pronominal clitics will accompany these pronominal forms.
Pronouns are not inflected for gender, but can be marked for oblique case and, optionally, subjective case.

Pronoun Construction

Notably, pronouns in Futuna-Aniwa can all be easily can be divided into specific morphological components. For example, the second person nonsingular dual pronoun akorua is formed by combining the personal article prefix a-, the nonsingular, second person, pronominal focus infix –ko- and the dual suffix –ua.
The only exception to this are interrogative pronouns, whose morphological construction is more complex and variable.

Personal Pronouns

Personal Pronouns are not obligatory in Futuna-Aniwa and may be omitted where context allows, as evident in example 1.
Example:

Possessive Pronouns

Pronouns in Futuna-Aniwa can be used to indicate inalienable possession, exclusively for singular persons. These appear immediately before an inalienable head noun.
Example:
There is also an equivalent “paradigm of personal pronoun suffixes” that occur in possessive constructions, suffixing onto nouns to indicate possession. Note that example below can also be expressed using the above equivalent inalienable possessive pronouns.
Example:

Interrogative Pronouns

There are 14 different interrogative pronoun forms in Futuna-Aniwa. Minimally, Futuna-Aniwa distinguishes between singular and nonsingular in all interrogative pronoun constructions. Nonsingular interrogative pronouns appear in dual, trial and plural positions.
Examples:

Emphatic Pronouns

Emphatic pronouns in Futuna-Aniwa are used to indicate that the designated referent in a clause is the only referent being referred to.
Examples:

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns in Futuna-Aniwa distinguish three positions: position near speaker, position near addressee and distant position. They are in essence a grouping of the base demonstrative form and the Futuna-Aniwa article system.
Example:

Pronominal Clitics

Within certain constructions in Futuna-Aniwa pronominal clitics occur alongside pronouns. Pronominal clitics only occur with singular persons and serve the role of cross referencing the subject of a verb. The pronominal clitic is typically suffixed onto tense or aspect markers, negatives in preverbal position or the infinitive.
Pronominal clitics primarily occur within transitive constructions in Futuna-Aniwa, although not exclusively. This is evident through comparing example with example below. The pronominal clitic is not present in, but is suffixed onto the preverbal negative particle in.
Examples:
Note: In, the first personal singular was omitted from the original example. It has been included for clarity.