Anuta language


The Anuta language is a Polynesian Outlier language from the island of Anuta in the Solomon Islands. It is closely related to the Tikopia language of the neighboring island of Tikopia, and it bears significant cultural influence from the island. The two languages have a high degree of mutual intelligibility, although Anutans can understand Tikopians better than the reverse.
Anuta is generally regarded as Nuclear Polynesian language, although it bears considerable Tongic influence.
In 1977, Richard Feinberg published a two-volume dictionary and basic grammar of the language.

Phonology

Anuta has an extremely small consonant inventory. This is as a result of several phoneme mergers such as /f/ with /p/ and /s/ with /t/. Vowels have a short and long form.
The allophonic variation is one of the Tikopian influences.
LabialAlveolarVelar
Nasal
Plosive ~
Fricative ~ ~
Liquid ~ ~

The length of a vowel makes a difference in phonetics in Polynesian languages.
In other times, long vowels are to emphasis.
FrontCentralBack
Close
Close-mid
Open

The stress in Anutan normally falls on the first syllable.

Morphology

Anuta shows many morphological similarities with Futunic languages and are related to Polynesian morphology.

Grammar

Anuta follows the word order SVO. PAV ergative constructions are also common.
Anuta distinguishes personal pronouns into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person and single, dual, and plural. Dual and plural 1st person are separated into exclusive and inclusive categories which depends on the words placement in the sentence.
2nd person pronouns should always be attached with either the particles ko, e, mo, or te.
When the pronoun is standing alone, usually in a response of a question, it is attached with the particle ko.
"Mea ko ai?"
"Ko au"
Similar to personal pronouns, possessive pronouns are divided into 1st, 2nd and 3rd person, single, dual and plural. Dual and plural also being separated into exclusive and inclusive. However, whether the object is singular or plural will change the singular form of the pronouns.
Two ways of possessive construction. One, the possessive pronoun is directly attached to the object or two, directly attached to the dual or plural forms.
In singular possessive pronouns, when the object changes from singular to plural the /t/ drops.
Any of the verbs in Anutan can be used as a noun by attaching "te".
Tense markers:
These tense markers may be attached to verbs without personal pronouns. Usually placed between the noun and the verb.
If time is unimportant in the context of the sentence, tense markers will be dropped.

Numerals

Numbers in Anuta are usually with tense markers.
Anutan use decimal counting systems. Tens use the same unit term "pua" making twenty "pua rua", thirty "pua toru" and so forth. After tens, the number indicated in the tens are marked with "maa" meaning "and". Eleven would be "puangapuru maa tai" meaning "ten and one". The same goes for twenty's, thirty's, etc.
If the object of counting are humans the word "toko" will be placed in front of the number if it is enumerated.
Counting fish would be marked with "mata" but is limited to ten or more.
AnutaEnglish
taione
ruatwo
toruthree
pafour
nimafive
onosix
pituseven
varueight
ivanine
puangapuruten
puangapuru maa taieleven
puangapuru maa ruatwelve
pura ruatwenty
pua toruthirty
pua te rauhundred
ape/te ape e taione thousand
mano/te mano e tai

Resources

A 200-word word list is available at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database.