Tolomako language

Tolomako
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Big Bay, Espiritu Santo Island
Native speakers	900 (2001)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic Northern Vanuatu Northeast Vanuatu – Banks Islands West Santo Tolomako
Dialects	Tolomako proper Tsuréviu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tlm
Glottolog	tolo1255

Tolomako is a language of the Oceanic subgroup of Austronesian languages. It is spoken on Santo island in Vanuatu.

Characteristics

It distinguishes four numbers for its personal pronouns: singular, dual, trial, plural. Its verbs have no tense or aspect marking, but two moods, realis and irrealis. Substantives and numerals also have the same two moods. E.g.

na	tatsua	mo	tea	mo	tsoa
realis	person	realis	one	realis	not to be

Someone is missing

te	tatsua	i	tea	mo	tsoa
irrealis	person	irrealis	one	realis	not to be

There is nobody.

Tolomako proper is characterized by having dentals where the mother language had labials before front vowels. It shares this feature with Sakao, but not with its dialect Tsureviu, which is otherwise very close. Thus:

Tolomako	Tsureviu
tei	pei	"water"
nata	mata	"eye"

When labials do occur preceding front vowels they seem to be reflexes of older labiovelars:

Tolomako	Tsureviu
pei	pei	"good"
mata	mata	"snake"

Compare with Fijian ŋata "snake" (spelt gata).

It has been speculated that Tolomako is a very simplified daughter-language or pidgin of the neighboring language Sakao. However, Tolomako is more likely a sister language of Sakao, not a pidgin. It cannot be phonologically derived from Sakao, whereas Sakao can be from Tolomako to some extent. Comparing Tolomako with its close dialect of Tsureviu allows to reconstruct an earlier state, from which most of Sakao can be regularly derived. This earlier state is very close to what can be reconstructed of Proto-Vanuatu. Thus Tolomako is a very conservative language, whereas Sakao has undergone drastic innovations in its phonology and grammar, both in the direction of increased complexity.

Phonology

Tolomako vowels

	front unrounded	back rounded
close	i	u
mid	e	o
open	a

Tolomako consonants

	labial	alveolar	velar
nasal	m	n
plosive	p	t	k
affricate		ts
fricative	β		ɣ
trill		r
approximant		l

Tolomako has a simple syllable structure, maximally consonant-vowel-vowel: V, CV, VV, CVV.

Deixis

There are three degrees of deixis, here/this, there/that, yonder/yon.

Nouns

Tolomako has inalienably possessed nouns, which are regularly derived:

tsiɣo- "mouth"

Tolomako	English
na tsiɣo-ku	"my mouth"
na tsiɣo-mu	"thy mouth"
na tsiɣo-na	"his/her/its mouth"
na tsiɣo-...	"...'s mouth"

βulu- "hair"

Tolomako	English
na βulu-ku	"my hair"
na βulu-mu	"thy hair"
na βulu-na	"his/her/its hair"
na βulu-...	"...'s hair"

Syntax

Tolomako syntax is isolating. It has a single preposition, ne, for all relationships of space and time; below it is used to distinguish the object of a verb from the instrument used.

Tolomako

mo	losi	na	poe	ne	na	matsa
S/he	hits	ART	pig	PREP	ART	club
"He hits (kills) the pig with a club"

See also

• Sakao language, for parallels to the above in a closely related but grammatically more complex language

External links

• A 1992 mailing list message from Jacques Guy, describing some of his fieldwork on the language
• A 1994 message from Jacques Guy, citing Tolomako as a counterexample to the thesis that all languages are equally complex