Malmariv language

Malmariv
Region	Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu
Native speakers	unknown (800 cited 1997–2001)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic Northern Vanuatu Northeast Vanuatu – Banks Islands West Santo Malmariv
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: mnl – Tiale lmb – Merei
Glottolog	tial1239  (Tiale) mere1242  (Merei)

Malmariv/Merei is an Oceanic language spoken in north central Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu.

There are two varieties, Tiale, or Malmariv, and Merei, or Lametin. They are mutually intelligible according to a comparison of 234 words, among which 94.87 cognates were found. There are an estimated 800 speakers of Malmariv-Merei or Tiale-Lametin. With Merei being spoken by approximately 400 people as a mother tongue. There are at least four villages where Merei is spoken, Angoru, Navele, Tombet and Vusvogo. These villages are located between the Ora and Lape rivers in the central area of Espiritu Santo Island.

Merei Phonology

Merei has a phoneme inventory consisting of sixteen consonants and five vowels. The combinations of vowels can form nine diphthongs.

Table 1: Consonant Phonemes

p	t	k
mb	nd	ŋg
pm	dӡ
v	s
m	n	ŋ
	l
	r	j

2: Vowel Phonemes

i		u
e		o
	a

Table 3: Vowel Combinations: Diphthongs

	a	e	i	o	u
a		ae	ai	ao	au
e			ei
i
o			oi		ou
u		ue	ui

Merei Morphology

Pronouns and Person Markers

The pronominal system contains two free-form categories, independent pronouns and preverbal subject pronouns, and two bound categories, object pronominal suffix and possessive pronominal suffix. No gender or animate distinction is made. Pronouns only have animate reference.

The pronominal system makes a distinction between first, second and third persons. Singular, dual, and plural are marked by number. First person dual and plural makes the distinction between inclusive and exclusive.

Table 4 below shows Merei's independent pronouns along with preverbal subject pronouns and pronominal suffixes.

Table 4: Pronouns and pronominal suffixes.

	Independent pronouns	Preverbal subject pronouns	Object pronominal suffix	Possessive pronominal suffix
1	nao	na/nam	-iau	-gu
2	go	ko	-ko	-m
3	nie	Ø	Ø	-na
1I	de	te	-da	-da
1E	gamau	kama	-mau	-mau
2P	gami	kam	-mi	-mi
3P	ire	Ø	-ra	-ra
1D	de rua	tera	-da rau	-da rua
1DE	gamau rua	kamara	-mau rua	-mau rua
2D	gami rua	kamra	-mi rua	-mi rua
3D	ire rua	Ø	-ra rua	-ra rua

Independent pronouns

In this example we see the 2nd person independent pronoun being used as a speech act of invitation.

(1)	i	go
	A:P	2
	'You (eat it).'	(as one is giving you food).

Example 2 shows use of the first person plural exclusive independent pronoun gamau.

(2)	Kam	ta	usi	ko	arongo/	ko	sio	peser	i	gamau	tui.
	2P	R	ask	2	today	2	down	with	A:P	1E	PER
	'We asked you today for you to stay with us. '

Preverbal Subject Pronouns and Suffixes

Example 3 below uses the preverbal subject pronoun nam and the possessive pronominal suffix -gu.

(3)	Nam	ta	tai	ia	jingo-m	ko	ta	tai	ia	sala-gu.
	1	R	make	A:C	Mouth-2	2	R	make	A:C	road-1.
	‘I make your mouth and you make my road.’

Example 4 below demonstrates the absence of a 3rd person singular preverbal subject pronoun and also contains the 3rd person plural pronominal suffix -ra.

(4)	Ø	ta	vai-ra	mate.
	3	R	make-3P	died.
	‘He cause them to die.’

Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are formed from the root nese- followed by a possessive pronominal suffix. It can be used in concurrence with the free pronoun and is often followed by the free particle nga 'only' as seen in example 5 and 6 below.

(5)	I	nau	nese-gu	nga	nam	ta	sioto.
	A:P	1	self-1	only	1	R	stay.
	‘Just I myself stay.’

(6)	Nam	ta	jip	nese-gu	nga.
	1	R	cut	self-1	only.
	‘I cut myself.’

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns consist of a mix of locational adverbs and third person pronouns. They have three possible functions: they can occupy the whole noun phrase slot, act as an independent nominal argument or be placed at the end of a noun phrase to modify the noun-head. The classifications of demonstrative adverbs are based on two aspects: speaker-hearer reference and spatial reference.

	Singular	Plural
close to both speaker and hearer	get-nie	get-ire
close to the speaker	na-nie	na-ire
close to the hearer	gata-nie	gata-ire
uncertain/not visible	ani-nie	ani-ire

Example 7 shows get-nie a speaker hearer referenced demonstrative pronoun

(7)	Get-nie	ia	sava?
	this	A:C	what
	'What is this?'

Example 8 shows get-ire a speaker hearer referenced demonstrative pronoun

(8)	Iadu	tese	get-ire	tato	toma?
	A:C.PL	man	these	R:3P	what.happen
	'What are these men doing?

Spatial reference demonstrative pronouns are formed by the third person independent pronouns, nie and ire when linked to spatial adverbial adverbs.

		Proximal	Intermediate	Distal
ascending direction	singular'''plural	ai-sa-nie''ai-sa-ire	ma-ja-nie''ma-ja-ire	le-sa-nie''le-sa-ire
at same level	singular''plural	ai-va-nie''ai-va-ire	ai-va-nie/le-va-nie''ai-va-ire/le-va-ire	le-va-nie''le-va-ire
descending direction	singular''plural	ai-sio-nie''ai-sio-ire	ma-jio-nie''ma-jio-ire	le-sio-nie''e-sio-ire

(9)	leva-nie
	far.horizontal.3
	'That far horizontal'

(10)	la	tese	leva-nie	Ø	ta	logologo.
	A:C	man	far.horizontal-3	3	R	bad.
	'That man is bad'			(referring to a man who is a long way from the speaker)