Daakaka[ⁿdaːkaka] (also known as Dakaka, South Ambrym and Baiap) is a native language of Ambrym, Vanuatu. It is spoken by about one thousand speakers in the south-western corner of the island.
Vitality
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 and French, in education and in official contexts.[1]
Phonology
Consonants
The system of consonantal phonemes is fairly typical for the region. Voicedstops are prenasalized. The difference between bilabial consonants with and without a labio-velar release is relevant only before front vowels.
There are seven phonemically distinct vowel qualities, with one long and one short vowel phoneme for each variety, plus a marginally phonemic ə[ə]. The distinction between mid and open-mid vowels is only phonemic after alveolar consonants, as in tee[tɛː] "axe" vs. téé[teː] "see".
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 copula i, only adjectives can be used as attributes to nouns without further modification. The two biggest word classes by far are nouns and verbs.
Nouns
There are three subclasses of nouns. The biggest subclass consists of 'general nouns' such as em "house" or myaop "volcano"; in contrast to the other two classes, these nouns do not need to specify a possessor, 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:
kus-uk
nose.of-1S.POSS
kus-uk
nose.of-1S.POSS
"my nose"
Transitive or relational 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 its allomorph-tye:
bwee
shell.of
tuwu
bush.nut
bwee tuwu
shell.of bush.nut
"the shell of the bush nut"
bwee-tye
shell.of-3S(n-hum).POSS
bwee-tye
shell.of-3S(n-hum).POSS
"its shell"
Verbs
Among verbs, there are several subgroups which differ either in terms of transitivity or in terms of the number of their internal argument (the subject of an intransitive verb or the object of a transitive verb).
Transitivity
There are three degrees of transitivity: verbs can be either intransitive, semitransitive or transitive. Intransitive verbs such as oko "walk" never take an object noun phrase. Semitransitive verbs can optionally be followed by an object noun phrase with indefinite reference; by contrast, transitive verbs are always interpreted to have a definite object.
Semitransitive en "eat":
Transitive ane "eat":
ya=m
3P=REAL
du
PROG
en
eat(SEMTR)
ya=m du en
3P=REAL PROG eat(SEMTR)
"they are eating"
ya=m
3P=REAL
du
PROG
ane
eat(TR)
ya=m du ane
3P=REAL PROG eat(TR)
"they are eating it"
ya=m
3P=REAL
du
PROG
en
eat(SEMTR)
mesyu
fish
ya=m du enmesyu
3P=REAL PROG eat(SEMTR) fish
"they are eating fish"
ya=m
3P=REAL
du
PROG
ane
eat(TR)
mesyu
fish
ya=m du anemesyu
3P=REAL PROG eat(TR) fish
"they are eating the fish"
Pluractionality
While most verbs are neutral with regard to the number of their arguments, some verbs can take only singular arguments and some (pluractional) verbs can only take non-singular arguments. For example, mur, tesi and medap all mean "fall down", but only medap can have either a singular or a plural subject. By contrast, mur can only take a singular subject, while the subject of tesi always refers to more than one entity (starred examples, in red cells, are ungrammatical):
Singular
Pluractional
Number-neutral
ó
coconut
swa
one
mu
REAL
mur
fall(SG)
ó swa mu mur
coconut one REAL fall(SG)
"one coconut fell down"
* ó
coconut
swa
one
ma
REAL
tesi
fall(N-SG)
{* ó} swa ma tesi
coconut one REAL fall(N-SG)
intend.:"one coconut fell down"
ó
coconut
swa
one
ma
REAL
medap
fall
ó swa ma medap
coconut one REAL fall
"one coconut fell down"
* ó
coconut
mwe
REAL
pwis
be.many
mu
REAL
mur
fall(SG)
{* ó} mwe pwis mu mur
coconut REAL be.many REAL fall(SG)
intend.:"many coconuts fell down"
ó
coconut
mwe
REAL
pwis
be.many
ma
REAL
tesi
fall(N-SG)
ó mwe pwis ma tesi
coconut REAL be.many REAL fall(N-SG)
"many coconuts fell down"
ó
coconut
mwe
REAL
pwis
be.many
ma
REAL
medap
fall
ó mwe pwis ma medap
coconut REAL be.many REAL fall
"many coconuts fell down"
Clauses
Basic clause structure
A simple assertive clause always contains a subject pronoun, a TAM 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 plus noun phrase (NP) or adverbial phrase.
Third person pronouns may be preceded by a subject NP. A few examples are given below:
Subject pronoun + TAM + VP
na=m
1S=
kueli
return
me
come
na=m kueli me
1S= return come
"I have returned"
Subject NP + TAM + Adjective
sini
green pigeon
ma
REAL
kekei
small
sini ma kekei
{green pigeon} REAL small
"the green pigeon is small"
Subject NP + TAM + Copula + NP
s-ok
CL3-1S.POSS
naana
mother
mw=i
REAL=COP
tyotyo
snake
s-ok naana mw=i tyotyo
CL3-1S.POSS mother REAL=COP snake
"my mother is a snake"
Personal Pronouns
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 person inclusive (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).
Subject pronouns
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
Non-subject pronouns
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
Notes
^ abUnless indicated otherwise, all information comes from von Prince (2012).
Bibliography
von Prince, Kilu (January 2015). A Grammar of Daakaka. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN978-3-11-034259-8.
