| Daakaka | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Vanuatu |
| Region | Ambrym |
Native speakers | 1,000 (2012)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bpa |
| Glottolog | daka1243 |
 Area where Daakaka is spoken on Ambrym | |
 Daakaka is not endangered according to the classification system of theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Daakaka[ⁿdaːkaka] (also known asDakaka,South Ambrym andBaiap) is a native language ofAmbrym,Vanuatu. It is spoken by about one thousand speakers in the south-western corner of the island.
Most children in the region still acquire Daakaka as a first language, but it is under threat by significant socio-economic changes and the dominant use of Vanuatu's official languages,Bislama,English andFrench, in education and in official contexts.[1]
The system of consonantal phonemes is fairly typical for the region.Voicedstops areprenasalized. The difference between bilabial consonants with and without a labio-velar release is relevant only before front vowels.
| Labio-velar | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | mʷ | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Stop | voiceless | pʷ | p | t | k | |
| prenasalized | ᵐbʷ | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | v | s | ||||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
There are seven phonemically distinctvowel qualities, with one long and one short vowelphoneme for each variety, plus a marginally phonemicə[ə]. The distinction between mid and open-mid vowels is only phonemic after alveolar consonants, as intee[tɛː] "axe" vs.téé[teː] "see".
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i,iː | u,uː | |
| Mid | e,eː | (ə) | o,oː |
| Open-mid | ɛ,ɛː | ɔ,ɔː | |
| Open | a,aː |
The four major word classes are nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Only nouns can stand in argument position, only verbs and some adjectives can be used as predicates without the copulai, only adjectives can be used as attributes to nouns without further modification. The two biggest word classes by far are nouns and verbs.
There are three subclasses of nouns. The biggest subclass consists of 'general nouns' such asem "house" ormyaop "volcano"; in contrast to the other two classes, these nouns do not need to specify apossessor, they cannot be inflected and they cannot be directly followed by another noun phrase. 'Inflected nouns' always indicate their possessor by a person-number ending:
Transitive orrelational nouns also obligatorily specify an inalienable possessor, but this possessor is given by a subsequent noun phrase, not by an inflectional ending. Known, definite, non-human possessors can also be indicated by the suffix-sye or itsallomorph-tye:
bwee
shell.of
tuwu
bush.nut
bwee tuwu
shell.of bush.nut
"the shell of the bush nut"
Among verbs, there are several subgroups which differ either in terms oftransitivity or in terms of the number of their internal argument (the subject of an intransitive verb or the object of a transitive verb).
There are three degrees of transitivity: verbs can be eitherintransitive,semitransitive ortransitive. Intransitive verbs such asoko "walk" never take an object noun phrase. Semitransitive verbs can optionally be followed by an object noun phrase withindefinite reference; by contrast, transitive verbs are always interpreted to have a definite object.
| Semitransitiveen "eat": | Transitiveane "eat": |
|---|---|
While most verbs are neutral with regard to thenumber of their arguments, some verbs can take only singular arguments and some (pluractional) verbs can only take non-singular arguments. For example,mur,tesi andmedap all mean "fall down", but onlymedap can have either a singular or a plural subject. By contrast,mur can only take a singular subject, while the subject oftesi always refers to more than one entity (starred examples, in red cells, are ungrammatical):
| Singular | Pluractional | Number-neutral |
|---|---|---|
A simple assertive clause always contains a subject pronoun, aTAM marker and a predicate - except for third person singular subjects, for which there is no subject pronoun. Predicates can consist of a verb, an adjective or a copula plusnoun phrase (NP) or adverbial phrase.
Thirdperson pronouns may be preceded by a subject NP. A few examples are given below:
naana
mother
tyotyo
snake
s-ok naana mw=i tyotyo
CL3-1S.POSS mother REAL=COP snake
"my mother is a snake"
There are two kinds of personal pronouns, subject pronouns and non-subject pronouns. Subject pronouns end in a vowel and are followed directly by a TAM marker. They are obligatory in assertive clauses. Non-subject pronouns are used as topics or objects of verbs or prepositions. Each pronoun represents a combination of a person and a number value. There are four person values: first personinclusive (including both the speaker and the listener), first person exclusive (including only the speaker, not the listener), second person (including the listener) and third person (including neither speaker nor listener). The four number values are singular (one person), dual (two persons), paucal (few persons) and plural (an arbitrarily large number of persons).
| Singular | Dual | Paucal | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | exclusive | na | kana | kisi | kinye |
| inclusive | da | si | ra | ||
| 2nd person | ko | ka | kasi | ki | |
| 3rd person | ∅ | ya | ye | ye | |
| Singular | Dual | Paucal | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | exclusive | nye | kenma | kinyemsi | kinyem |
| inclusive | ada | ansi | ar/er | ||
| 2nd person | ngok | kama | kamsi | kimim | |
| 3rd person | nge | nyoo | nya | nyosi | |