Sakao language

Sakao (also Nkep or Nekep) is an Oceanic language spoken on the northeast horn of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu.

Name

Sakao is the name of the language as used by foreigners and linguists. It is named after Sakao Island, an islet off the northeastern shore of Espiritu Santo, almost opposite Port-Olry. (Incidentally, this is not the native name of that island, which is called Laðhi by Sakao speakers. The name sakau < Proto-Oceanic *sakaRu means ‘coral reef’ in various languages of Vanuatu, but it is unknown exactly which one gave its name to the island.)

The speakers of Sakao refer to their own language using various names, depending on the variety considered.

Dialects

Sakao has undergone considerable phonological change and innovations, which make it utterly unintelligible to its closely related neighbours of Espiritu Santo. Evidence from the two dialects, however, shows that the innovation happened recently, perhaps within the last millennium. Thus for instance, comparing the following words with their cognates in its close relative Tolomako:

	Sakao	Tolomako	Proto-form
"louse"	nøð	na ɣutu	*na ɣutu
"chicken"	nɔð	na toa	*na toa
"four"	jɛð	βati	*βati
"to blow"	hy	suβi	*suβi

The main dialects of Sakao are Northern, or Port-Olry dialect, and Southern, or Hog-Harbour dialect. The Southern dialect is the more conservative one. It is characterized by the loss of most pretonic and posttonic vowels, resulting in consonant clusters unusual for an Oceanic language. The Northern dialect is characterized by its extensive use of epenthetic vowels, which have achieved phonemic status, resulting in what looks superficially like vowel harmony; the loss of the initial *n- of nouns, except in monosyllabic nouns (this *n- being a reflex of the common Austronesian article *na, fused to the nouns in Sakao); and the diphthongization of some word-final vowels.

Thus for instance Port-Olry has "fog, mist" where Hog-Harbour has .

Unless otherwise indicated, examples given here are in the Northern, Port-Olry, dialect.

Phonology

Sakao vowels (partial)

	Front Unrounded	Front Rounded	Back Rounded
Close	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Close-mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Open-mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Open	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link

In addition, Sakao has a close vowel that is unspecified for being rounded or unrounded, front or back, and is always unstressed. It also has the two diphthongs , whereas Tolomako has none.

Sakao consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Plosive	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Approximant	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Tap			Template:IPA link
Trill			Template:IPA link

In addition, Sakao consonants may be long or short: "drum", "bed"

It is not clear if Sakao even has syllables; that is, whether trying to divide Sakao words into meaningful syllables is even possible. If it is, Sakao syllables would appear to be V (a vowel or diphthong) surrounded by any number of consonants: V "thou", CCVCCCC (?) "having sung and stopped singing thou kept silent" [ 2nd pers., "to sing", perfective, continuous].

Grammar

Number

Like Tolomako, Sakao distinguishes four numbers for its personal pronouns. However, they are not singular, dual, trial, plural, but singular, dual, paucal, plural. The Sakao paucal derives from the Tolomako trial, thus Tolomako "they three", Sakao "they, from three to ten" ( and are regularly derivable from < and ). One says in Sakao < "the five of them" which is, etymologically, "they three, five."

Substantives are not inflected for number, except kinship terms which distinguish singular and plural: "my mother/aunt," "my aunts;" "my child," "my children." Likewise all demonstratives (pronouns, adjectives, even locatives): "this one," "these ones;" "this person," "these persons;" "here," "in several places around here."

Deixis

Sakao has seven degrees of deixis.

Nouns

Sakao has inalienably possessed nouns, many of which are irregularly inflected:

Sakao English œsɨŋœ-ɣ "my mouth" œsɨŋœ-m "thy mouth" ɔsɨŋɔ-n "his/her/its mouth" œsœŋ-... "...'s mouth"

Sakao English uly-ɣ "my hair" uly-m "thy hair" ulœ-n "his/her/its hair" nøl-... "...'s hair"

Here "mouth" is variably and "hair" variably .

Syntax

Sakao has a suffix that increases the valence of a verb (corresponding to applicative suffixes in other languages): it makes intransitive verbs transitive, and transitive verbs ditransitive. It the latter case, one argument may be the direct object and the other an instrument; the word order of the arguments is free, leaving context to disambiguate which is which:

This could also be .

The Sakao strategy involves polysynthetic syntax, as opposed to the isolating syntax of its neighbor Tolomako. For instance, the word 'pig' above could be incorporated into the verb, leaving a single external argument:

Sakao polysynthesis can also involve compound verbs, each with its own instrument or object:

Here "the bow" is the instrumental argument of "to shoot", and "the sea" is the direct object of "to follow", which since they are combined into a single verb, are marked as ditransitive with the suffix . Because "to shoot" has the incorporated object "fish", the first consonant geminates for ; , being part of one word, then reduces to .

• Tolomako language, for parallels to the above in a closely related but grammatically simpler language

References

• Template:Cite thesis

External links

• ELAR archive of N'kep dialect of Sakao (north Vanuatu): Structure and variation
• Paradisec has two collections of Arthur Cappell's (AC1, AC2) that include Sakao language materials