Apma language
Encyclopedia
Apma is the language of central Pentecost island
in Vanuatu
. Apma belongs to the East Vanuatu languages
, a branch of the Austronesian languages
family.
With an estimated 7,800 native speakers (in the year 2000), Apma is the most widely spoken of Pentecost's native languages, and the fifth largest vernacular in Vanuatu as a whole. In recent times Apma has spread at the expense of other indigenous languages such as Sowa
and Ske
. Apma is increasingly mixed with words and expressions from Bislama, Vanuatu's national language.
Mwerani and rabwanga are the words for "today" in their respective dialects, while bo and kavi are the words for "pig".
Two other probable Apma dialects, Asuk (or Asa) in the south-west and Wolwolan (or Volvoluana) in the north, are now extinct.
phonemes of Apma are b, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, ng (as in English "singer"), r, s, t, ts (or j), bilabial v, w, and labiovelar bw and mw. The consonants b, bw, v and w are realised as p where they occur at the end of a syllable.
Clusters of consonants cannot occur within a syllable. Unlike in closely related Raga language
, word roots in Apma can end with a consonant.
In archaic and northern varieties of Apma, prenasalization of consonants
occurs in some environments, so that b becomes mb, d becomes nd, and g becomes ngg. This feature has been lost in modern Suru Mwerani dialect.
Apma's five vowels come in short forms (a, e, i, o and u) and long forms (aa, ee, ii, oo and uu). Long vowels typically occur where a consonant (most commonly r) has historically been lost. Vowels can occur alone or in various combinations. The combination iu has a distinctive rounded pronunciation.
Stress is normally on the penultimate syllable of a word. However, syllables that end with a consonant or a long vowel take stress in precedence to other syllables.
and number
. They are not distinguished by gender
. The basic pronouns differ substantially between dialects:
The dual or plural form of "you" is occasionally used in place of the singular form to show extreme respect.
. Plural
ity is indicated by placing the pronoun nii ("them") or a number after the noun:
Nouns may be either free, or directly possessed. Directly possessed nouns are suffixed to indicate whom an item belongs to. For example:
Possession may also be indicated by the use of possessive classifiers, separate words that occur before or after the noun and take possessive suffixes. These classifiers are:
The possessive suffixes are as follows:
In Suru Kavian dialect, vowels in certain directly possessed nouns and possessive classifiers change according to the pattern illustrated below. This does not occur in other dialects:
A verb may be transformed into a noun by the addition of a nominalising suffix -an:
Modifiers generally come after a noun:
, aspect
and mood
of the action.
The subject pronouns are as follows:
Apma has five sets of tense/aspect/mood markers:
The full forms of these markers are used in the 3rd person singular (where there is no subject pronoun):
Elswhere, short forms of these markers are suffixed to the subject pronoun:
The imperfective marker alters to some extent to match the sound of the verb it is attached to. It is usually absent altogether when the verb begins with b or m. (In Suru Kavian dialect, it is absent when the verb begins with any consonant other than r.) For example, in Suru Mwerani:
Dual (two-person) forms consist of the plural forms with ru (or ri in Suru Kavian) inserted after the tense/aspect/mood marker:
There is a pattern of verb-consonant mutation
whereby v at the start of a verb changes to b, and w changes to bw, in certain aspects/moods:
In northern and archaic varieties of Apma, there is also mutation of k to g, and of t to d.
Negative phrases are indicated with the two-part marker ba...nga "not", or a variant, which encloses the verb and any direct object:
The passive voice
can be formed by attaching the suffix -an to the verb:
In the imperative
, verbs are preceded simply by the 2nd person subject pronoun ko or karu "you":
Prohibitions are marked with ba...an:
Other particles that can occur in a verb phrase include:
The direct object, if one is present, immediately follows the verb. When the object is already known, it need not be stated explicitly:
Many verbs in Apma have distinct transitive
and intransitive
forms. (These distinctions have been lost to some extent in Suru Kavian dialect.) For example, in Suru Mwerani:
In Suru Mwerani dialect, and to a lesser extent Suru Rabwanga, vowels have been lost from a number of verb roots, producing 'bound verbs' which begin with a pair of consonants (such as -mni and -slo above). Since clusters of consonants within a syllable are prohibited in Apma, speakers usually cite these verbs with a prefix such as mwa- attached (mwamni, mwaslo), and do not identify them as words when unprefixed.
In addition to verbs denoting actions, Apma has a large number of stative verb
s that describe an item. For example, there is a verb "to be red" (meme) and a verb "to be good" (gabis). Apma uses stative verbs in many of the situations where adjectives would be used in English.
Unlike neighbouring Raga language
, Apma has a copular verb, (v)i or bi. The phrase tei... meaning "it was..." (tevi... in Suru Kavian) is commonly used to focus attention on something or to set the scene.
Verbs in Apma can be linked together in a variety of serial verb construction
s.
Cindy Schneider of the University of New England
completed a description of the Suru Mwerani dialect of Apma language in 2008. Following Schneider's work, Pascal Temwakon and Andrew Gray produced Bongmehee, an illustrated dictionary of the language.
The other two dialects of Apma remain poorly documented.
Pentecost Island
Pentecost Island is one of the 83 islands that make up the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. It lies due north of capital Port Vila. Pentecost Island is known as Pentecôte in French and Pentikos in Bislama. The island was known in its native languages by names such as Vanu Aroaroa, although these...
in Vanuatu
Vanuatu
Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
. Apma belongs to the East Vanuatu languages
East Vanuatu languages
-Languages:A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database included seven East Vanuatu languages. Three, the Paama–Ambrym languages, were found to form a separate family...
, a branch of the Austronesian languages
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
family.
With an estimated 7,800 native speakers (in the year 2000), Apma is the most widely spoken of Pentecost's native languages, and the fifth largest vernacular in Vanuatu as a whole. In recent times Apma has spread at the expense of other indigenous languages such as Sowa
Sowa language
Sowa was the original language of south-central Pentecost island in Vanuatu. In recent times it has been totally displaced by Apma, a neighbouring language. Sowa is very closely related to Ske, another south Pentecost language....
and Ske
Ske language
Ske is an endangered language of south-western Pentecost island in Vanuatu. Ske belongs to the East Vanuatu languages, a branch of the Austronesian languages family....
. Apma is increasingly mixed with words and expressions from Bislama, Vanuatu's national language.
Dialects and range
Modern Apma has three well-defined dialects:- Suru Mwerani, the southernmost dialect, is the most widely spoken and well-documented dialect. It is spoken in Melsisi, Tansip, Vanrasini and surrounding villages, and in the former SowaSowa languageSowa was the original language of south-central Pentecost island in Vanuatu. In recent times it has been totally displaced by Apma, a neighbouring language. Sowa is very closely related to Ske, another south Pentecost language....
area between Melsisi and Ranmawot.
- Suru Rabwanga (or Suru Bo), the central dialect, is spoken in the mountainous area between Bwatnapni and Namaram. It is very similar to Suru Mwerani, and the two dialects are mixed in villages such as Bwatnapni, Enaa, Wutsunmwel and Naruwa.
- Suru Kavian is a small, endangered and very distinctive dialect, spoken in the area to the north and east of Namaram. It is hard for speakers of the other two dialects to understand.
Mwerani and rabwanga are the words for "today" in their respective dialects, while bo and kavi are the words for "pig".
Two other probable Apma dialects, Asuk (or Asa) in the south-west and Wolwolan (or Volvoluana) in the north, are now extinct.
Phonology
The consonantConsonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
phonemes of Apma are b, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, ng (as in English "singer"), r, s, t, ts (or j), bilabial v, w, and labiovelar bw and mw. The consonants b, bw, v and w are realised as p where they occur at the end of a syllable.
Clusters of consonants cannot occur within a syllable. Unlike in closely related Raga language
Raga language
Raga is the language of northern Pentecost island in Vanuatu. Raga belongs to the East Vanuatu languages, a branch of the Austronesian languages family...
, word roots in Apma can end with a consonant.
In archaic and northern varieties of Apma, prenasalization of consonants
Prenasalized consonant
Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent that behave phonologically like single consonants. The reasons for considering these sequences to be single consonants is in their behavior, not in their actual composition...
occurs in some environments, so that b becomes mb, d becomes nd, and g becomes ngg. This feature has been lost in modern Suru Mwerani dialect.
Apma's five vowels come in short forms (a, e, i, o and u) and long forms (aa, ee, ii, oo and uu). Long vowels typically occur where a consonant (most commonly r) has historically been lost. Vowels can occur alone or in various combinations. The combination iu has a distinctive rounded pronunciation.
Stress is normally on the penultimate syllable of a word. However, syllables that end with a consonant or a long vowel take stress in precedence to other syllables.
Grammar
Basic word order in Apma is subject–verb–object. Occasionally, a subject may occur out of its usual position, in which case it is marked with na:- Bo mwe gani bwarus = The pig is eating papaya
- Mwe gani bwarus, na bo = It's eating papaya, the pig
Pronouns
Personal pronouns are distinguished by personGrammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
and number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
. They are not distinguished by gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
. The basic pronouns differ substantially between dialects:
| Person | Apma (Suru Mwerani dialect) |
Apma (Suru Rabwanga dialect) |
Apma (Suru Kavian dialect) |
English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | nana | nana | ina | "me" |
| 2nd person singular | kik | nggi | nggu | "you" (singular) |
| 3rd person singular | ni | ni | ini | "him / her / it" |
| 1st person dual (inclusive) | kuduru | kunduru | kindiri | "us" (you and me, two of us) |
| 1st person dual (exclusive) | gemaru | nggemaru | inggari | "us" (me and another) |
| 2nd person dual | gumru | nggimiru | nggumiri | "you (two)" |
| 3rd person dual | nuuru | nuuru | iniiri | "them (two)" |
| 1st person plural (inclusive) | kidi | kindi | kindi | "us" (you and me) |
| 1st person plural (exclusive) | gema | nggema | ingga | "us" (me and others) |
| 2nd person plural | gimi | nggimi | nggumi | "you" (plural) |
| 3rd person plural | nii | nii | inii | "them" |
The dual or plural form of "you" is occasionally used in place of the singular form to show extreme respect.
Nouns
Nouns in Apma are generally not preceded by articlesArticle (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
. Plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
ity is indicated by placing the pronoun nii ("them") or a number after the noun:
- bwihil = [the] bird
- bwihil nii = [the] birds
- bwihil katsil = three birds
Nouns may be either free, or directly possessed. Directly possessed nouns are suffixed to indicate whom an item belongs to. For example:
- dalek = my voice
- dalem = your voice
- dalen = his/her voice
- dalen subu = the chief's voice
- dalekte = voice (generic)
Possession may also be indicated by the use of possessive classifiers, separate words that occur before or after the noun and take possessive suffixes. These classifiers are:
- no- for general possessions (nok watang, "my basket")
- bila- for things that are cared for, such as crops and livestock (bilada bo, "our pig")
- ka- for things to be eaten (kam tsi, "your sugarcane")
- ma- for things to be drunk (maa sileng, "their water")
- na- for associations, over which the possessor has no control (vini nak, "my home island")
The possessive suffixes are as follows:
| Person | Apma (Suru Mwerani dialect) |
Apma (Suru Rabwanga dialect) |
Apma (Suru Kavian dialect) |
English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | -k | -ngg + vowel | -ngg + vowel | "of mine" |
| 2nd person singular | -m | -m | -m | "of yours" (singular) |
| 3rd person singular | -n | -n | -n | "of his/hers/its" |
| 1st person dual (inclusive) | -daru | -nd + vowel + ru | -nd + vowel + ri | "of ours" (yours and mine, two of us) |
| 1st person dual (exclusive) | -maru | -maru | -mari | "of ours" (mine and another's) |
| 2nd person dual | -mru | -muru | -miri | "of yours" (two of you) |
| 3rd person dual | -ru | -ru | -ri | "of theirs" (two of them) |
| 1st person plural (inclusive) | -da | -nd + vowel | -nd + vowel | "of ours" (yours and mine) |
| 1st person plural (exclusive) | -ma | -ma | -ma | "of ours" (mine and others') |
| 2nd person plural | -mi | -mi | -mi | "of yours" (plural) |
| 3rd person plural | (lengthened vowel) | (lengthened vowel) | (lengthened vowel) | "of theirs" |
| Generic | -kte | -k | -k | - |
In Suru Kavian dialect, vowels in certain directly possessed nouns and possessive classifiers change according to the pattern illustrated below. This does not occur in other dialects:
| 1st person singular | nonggo bu "my knife" |
vilunggu "my hair" |
| 2nd person singular | nom bu "your knife" |
vilum "your hair" |
| 3rd person singular | nen bu "his/her knife" |
vilin "his/her hair" |
| 1st person plural (inclusive) |
nende bu "our knife" |
vilindi "our hair" |
| 1st person plural (exclusive) |
noma bu "our knife" |
viluma "our hair" |
| 2nd person singular | nomi bu "your knife" |
vilumi "your hair" |
| 3rd person singular | nee bu "their knife" |
vilii "their hair" |
A verb may be transformed into a noun by the addition of a nominalising suffix -an:
- wel = to dance (verb)
- welan = a dance (noun)
Modifiers generally come after a noun:
- vet = stone
- vet tewep = small stone
- vet kavet = four stones
Verbs
Verbs in Apma are usually preceded by a subject pronoun and by a marker indicating the tenseGrammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
, aspect
Grammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
and mood
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
of the action.
The subject pronouns are as follows:
| Person | Apma | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | na- | "I" |
| 2nd person singular | ko- | "you" (singular) |
| 3rd person singular | - | "he" / "she" / "it" |
| 1st person plural (inclusive) | ta- | "we" (you and I) |
| 1st person plural (exclusive) | kaa(ma)- | "we" (others and I) |
| 2nd person plural | ka- (ko...i in Suru Kavian dialect) |
"you" (plural) |
| 3rd person plural | ra- | "they" |
Apma has five sets of tense/aspect/mood markers:
| Tense / Aspect / Mood | Used for | Marker (full form) | Marker (short form) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imperfective | Actions in the present tense Temporary or changing states A 'default' marker when the tense/aspect/mood has already been set |
mwa-, mwe-, mwi-, mwo-, mu- | -m |
| Perfective | Actions in the past tense Fixed states Negative phrases in either past or present tense |
te- | -t |
| Potential | Things that may happen in the future | mwan(e)- (nee- in northern and archaic Apma) |
-n (replaced with a long vowel in northern and archaic Apma) |
| Prospective | Things that are about to happen | nema- | -ma |
| Hypothetical | Things that have not happened and probably won't | bat(e)- | -bat |
The full forms of these markers are used in the 3rd person singular (where there is no subject pronoun):
- mwe leli = he does it
- te leli = he did it
- mwan leli = he will do it
Elswhere, short forms of these markers are suffixed to the subject pronoun:
- nam leli = I do it
- nat leli = I did it
- nan leli = I will do it
The imperfective marker alters to some extent to match the sound of the verb it is attached to. It is usually absent altogether when the verb begins with b or m. (In Suru Kavian dialect, it is absent when the verb begins with any consonant other than r.) For example, in Suru Mwerani:
- mwi sip = he goes down
- mwo rop = he runs
- mu rus = he moves
- --- ban = he goes
Dual (two-person) forms consist of the plural forms with ru (or ri in Suru Kavian) inserted after the tense/aspect/mood marker:
- ram leli = they do it
- ramru leli = the two of them do it
There is a pattern of verb-consonant mutation
Consonant mutation
Consonant mutation is when a consonant in a word changes according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment.Mutation phenomena occur in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of all modern Celtic languages...
whereby v at the start of a verb changes to b, and w changes to bw, in certain aspects/moods:
- nat van = I went
- na ban = I am going
- nan ban or nan van = I will go
In northern and archaic varieties of Apma, there is also mutation of k to g, and of t to d.
Negative phrases are indicated with the two-part marker ba...nga "not", or a variant, which encloses the verb and any direct object:
- natba leli nga = I don't do it / I didn't do it
- nanba leli nga = I won't do it
The passive voice
Voice (grammar)
In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments . When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice...
can be formed by attaching the suffix -an to the verb:
- te lelan = it was done
In the imperative
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
, verbs are preceded simply by the 2nd person subject pronoun ko or karu "you":
- Ko leli! = Do it! (to one person)
- Karu leli! = Do it! (to two people, or politely to a group)
- Ka leli! = Do it! (plural, considered impolite and usually heard only with children)
Prohibitions are marked with ba...an:
- Ko[n]ba lelian! = Don't do it!
Other particles that can occur in a verb phrase include:
- a minimizing marker ga(m), "just"
- a partitive marker te, "partly" or "at all"
- an additive marker m(u), "furthermore"
- a completive marker, also te, "already"
The direct object, if one is present, immediately follows the verb. When the object is already known, it need not be stated explicitly:
- nat gita kik = I saw you
- nat gita = I saw [it]
Many verbs in Apma have distinct transitive
Transitive verb
In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...
and intransitive
Intransitive verb
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....
forms. (These distinctions have been lost to some extent in Suru Kavian dialect.) For example, in Suru Mwerani:
| Intransitive | Transitive |
|---|---|
| gan "to eat" | gani "to eat something" |
| min "to drink" | -mni "to drink something" |
| rong "to hear" | rongo "to hear something" |
| solsol "to do the sewing" | -slo "to sew something" |
| lehlehvik "to do the washing" | lehvi "to wash something" |
| diptsipmik "to perform a burial" | dipmi "to bury something" |
In Suru Mwerani dialect, and to a lesser extent Suru Rabwanga, vowels have been lost from a number of verb roots, producing 'bound verbs' which begin with a pair of consonants (such as -mni and -slo above). Since clusters of consonants within a syllable are prohibited in Apma, speakers usually cite these verbs with a prefix such as mwa- attached (mwamni, mwaslo), and do not identify them as words when unprefixed.
In addition to verbs denoting actions, Apma has a large number of stative verb
Stative verb
A stative verb is one that asserts that one of its arguments has a particular property . Statives differ from other aspectual classes of verbs in that they are static; that is, they have undefined duration...
s that describe an item. For example, there is a verb "to be red" (meme) and a verb "to be good" (gabis). Apma uses stative verbs in many of the situations where adjectives would be used in English.
Unlike neighbouring Raga language
Raga language
Raga is the language of northern Pentecost island in Vanuatu. Raga belongs to the East Vanuatu languages, a branch of the Austronesian languages family...
, Apma has a copular verb, (v)i or bi. The phrase tei... meaning "it was..." (tevi... in Suru Kavian) is commonly used to focus attention on something or to set the scene.
Verbs in Apma can be linked together in a variety of serial verb construction
Serial verb construction
The serial verb construction, also known as serialization, is a syntactic phenomenon common to many African, Asian and New Guinean languages...
s.
Sample phrases
| English | Apma (Suru Mwerani dialect) |
Apma (Suru Rabwanga dialect) |
Apma (Suru Kavian dialect) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where are you going? | Ko ban ibeh? | Ko ban imbeh? | Ko ban al beh? |
| I'm going to... | Na ban... | Na mban... | Na mban... |
| Where have you come from? | Ko tepma ibeh? | Ko tepma ibeh? | Kot vama al beh? |
| I've come from... | Na tepma... | Na tepma... | Nat vama... |
| Where is it? | Mwidi ibeh? | Mwindi ibeh? | Si al beh? |
| It's here | Mwidi dokah | Mwindi dokah | Si inda |
| What's your name? | Ham ah itan? | Ham ah idan? | Am ah idan? |
| My name is... | Hak ah... | Hangga ah... | Angga ah... |
| Where are you from? | Kik atsi at ibeh? | ngGi atsi at ibeh? | ngGu asi at beh? |
| I am from... | Nana atsi at... | Nana atsi at... | Ina asi at... |
| How much? / How many? | Kavih? | Kavih? | Kaivih? |
| one | bwaleh | bwaleh | bwaleh |
| two | karu | karu | kairi |
| three | katsil | katsil | kaitil |
| four | kavet | kavet | kaivas |
| five | kalim | kalim | kailim |
| Thank you | Ko biah | Ko bivah | Ko mudak |
| It's just fine | Te gabis nge | Te kabis nge | Te kabis nga |
Documentation
Notes on the grammar and vocabulary of Apma language were first made by Catholic missionaries at Melsisi in the early 20th century.Cindy Schneider of the University of New England
University of New England (Australia)
The University of New England is an Australian public university with approximately 18,000 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern New South Wales....
completed a description of the Suru Mwerani dialect of Apma language in 2008. Following Schneider's work, Pascal Temwakon and Andrew Gray produced Bongmehee, an illustrated dictionary of the language.
The other two dialects of Apma remain poorly documented.