Maskelynes (), or Kuliviu (Uliveo), is an Oceanic language spoken on the Maskelyne Islands off south Malekula, Vanuatu.
Phonology
Consonants
- are in free variation as unreleased or unvoiced word-finally or before a consonant
- is also in free variation as nasal word-finally, especially among young speakers
- is realized as a voiceless among some speakers, especially young
- are unreleased word-finally or before a consonant (though has never been recorded before a consonant)
- lose their labialization word-finally when not followed by a vowel and before
- is in free variation as trilled (tapped in Peskarus) before and sometimes before
- is before voiced consonants
- are [] before voiceless consonants and word-finally
- is in free variation with for some speakers
- are vocalic when in nucleus following
Vowels
- is near-close between front consonants
- is close-mid word-finally
- is after labiovelarized consonants or before
- are realised as single phones,
- is realised as front between front consonants, and near-close when proceeded or preceded by back consonants
- is front between front consonants
Voiceless vowel
A voiceless occurs at the ends of words. It is uncertain if it is an allophone of or a separate phoneme
Phonotactics
Possible syllable structures in Maskelynes: (C/S)V(S)(C)
Orthography
Grammar
Verbs
The verbs of Maskelynes are agglutinative, mostly being modified by prefixes, though the stem of a verb can stand on its own. These prefixes encode for, in order of appearance in verb: 1. tense-aspect-modes; 2. subject, person and number; 3. various modes, including realis and irrealis; 4. two tense-modes; 5. reduplication. The object of a sentence is encoded by a suffix.
Examples of verbal agglutination:
Reduplication
Reduplication in Maskelynes has various usages, and can encode for e.g. plurality, habituality, iterative aspect, etc.
References
External links
Bibliography