Browsing by Author "Ridge E"
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- ItemMorphosyntactic and functional asymmetries in Vatlongos discourse demonstratives(Language Science Press, 2020-09-28) Ridge E; Næss, Å; Margetts, A; Treiss, YVatlongos (also known as Southeast Ambrym, Oceanic, Vanuatu) has four demonstrative categories: three person-based distance distinctions (first-person proximal, second-person proximal, and distal) and a contrastive category. In spatial situational domains, and to refer to locative referents, first-person proximal, second-person proximal and distal categories are distinguished from each other. Discourse functions are largely structured around an opposition between forms based on the first-person proximal clitic ak and the contrastive suffix -e. The wider morphosyntactic distribution of the first-person proximal is reflected in its discourse functions, as the unmarked forms for anaphora and recognitional uses. The more restricted contrastive -e forms also occur in contexts of negative affect. In the verbal forms this asymmetry is even more striking. The first-person proximal verbal demonstrative mak is the general manner demonstrative, occurring both as a main verb and modifying other verbs in serial verb constructions. The verbal form based on contrastive -e, mue, is only used in hesitation, a specialisation that could arise from the role of contrastive -e forms in discourse repair to modify placeholders.
- ItemPatterns of variation in subject-indexing prefixes in Vatlongos, Southeast Ambrym(John Benjamins Publishing, 2022) Ridge EThis paper describes four patterns of variation in the subject-indexing paradigm of Vatlongos (Oceanic, Vanuatu). It explores their quantitative distribution in a corpus of monologic texts from speakers in three different communities: Mele Maat, a relocated peri-urban community; Endu, which has a distinct dialect; and Ase-Taveak, the other villages of Southeast Ambrym. Speakers in Mele Maat are more likely to use a zero variant of the third person singular Non-future prefix and shorter syllabic variants, and less likely to use the paucal number category. All three patterns suggest formal simplification in the Mele Maat community. The latter two patterns are also associated with higher levels of education, and consequent greater exposure to national and international languages. Overall these patterns suggest that changes which involve reduction of distinctions in morphological paradigms are more likely to be accelerated in contexts of language endangerment than phonological change or phonological reduction.
- ItemThe sixth vowel in Vatlongos (Southeast Ambrym)Ridge EIn addition to the five vowels most typically found in Oceanic languages, Vatlongos has a sixth vowel phoneme, a near-low front vowel /æ/ (Parker 1968). There are a few minimal pairs distinguishing it from /a/ and /e/, such as mai ‘reef’ or ‘pigeon’; mei ‘come’; mæi ‘3SG.NFUT.let’ or ‘hunger’. However, it is lexically and phonologically restricted compared to other vowels. /æ/ usually occurs following a bilabial consonant, or preceding /h/, although there are exceptions. In some lexical and phonological contexts, /æ/ is in free variation with either /a/ or /e/. In a lexical database of over 3000 lexemes (excluding Bislama loanwords and proper nouns), /æ/ occurs in just 107 words. However, /æ/ is likely underrepresented due to tendencies to represent this sound with or . The orthographic representation of this vowel is an area of continuing discussion. This paper will report results from a project to investigate the acoustic properties of the /æ/ phoneme. Around 1500 vowel tokens in two narrative recordings by the same female speaker were aligned in Praat textgrids, and the midpoint F1 and F2 extracted using the PraatR package (Albin 2014) in RStudio. While data checking is still in progress, initial results show acoustic properties consistent with /æ/ as a low front vowel phoneme, overlapping with tokens of /e/ and /a/. As most tokens follow the prenasalised bilabial stop, we will also discuss the distribution of nasalised allophones. We have found patterns of intraspeaker lexical variation between /æ/, /e/ and /a/, including in phonological contexts where /æ/ is not predicted by Parker’s (1968) description. The phoneme /a/ in Bislama loanwords appears to be realised slightly differently, intermediate between Vatlongos /a/ and /æ/, suggesting that vowels in Bislama loanwords are not fully phonologically integrated.
- ItemTranscribing Tonkinson's Southeast Ambrym recordings: first impressions and community experiencesRidge E; Donald E; Wase SThis paper will discuss our experiences of transcribing audio recordings made by anthropologist Bob Tonkinson (1967) in Southeast Ambrym and Mele Maat between 1966 and 2002, archived with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and Paradisec. The 75 hours of recordings include musical performances, custom celebrations, church services, community meetings, and interviews, in Vatlongos (aka. Southeast Ambrym), Bislama and occasional English, as well as Tonkinson’s anthropological observations. As part of a wider project looking at young people’s language use and attitudes, we have worked with young speakers of Vatlongos (aged 18-30) to transcribe these archival recordings, in order to make the archived materials more available to the wider community, and investigate longitudinal language change. While language use in the past is often held up as a standard that the young people of today are falling short of, it is hoped that this experience will instead position young community members as experts on historical language use, demystifying language change in Vatlongos and Vatlongos-speaking communities. This is also an opportunity for training and practice in using written Vatlongos, identified as a priority for community language goals, especially to support Vatlongos-medium education in early school years, and increased use of the Vatlongos Bible translation. Responding to Himmelmann’s (2018) call for closer attention to be paid to transcription in language documentation, this paper will discuss the rationale, methods and logistics for conducting a large transcription project across multiple locations, remotely and with inexperienced transcribers, including ethical considerations and support systems. We will focus on experiences of running transcriber training sessions, transcribers’ experiences of engaging with recordings of their ancestors, and our first impressions of possible evidence of language change and changing language use in Vatlongos-speaking communities.
