Ughele language

Ughele
Native to	Solomon Islands
Region	north Rendova Island
Native speakers	1,200 (1999)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Northwest Solomonic New Georgia – Ysabel New Georgia Ughele; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	uge
Glottolog	ughe1237

Ughele is an Oceanic language spoken by about 1200 people on Rendova Island, located in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.

There is no internal dialect differentiation.

Phonology

The following information is gathered from Benedicte Haraldstad Frostad. "A Grammar of Ughele: A Language of The Solomon Islands". 2012. Pages 35–48

Vowel Inventory

Ughele contains a five vowel inventory that is typical of most Oceanic languages. These are differentiated by changes in the place of articulation and the degree of stricture required to produce the sound. Lip rounding only accounts for the differentiation of two segments. These are the close-mid back vowel /o/ and the close back vowel /u/.

This inventory consists of three front vowels: /i/, /e/, /a/; two back /o/, /u/ and no central phonemes.

There is no variation in vowel length.

Distinguished by place of articulation

/veke/ and /veko/ - 'flying fox’ and ‘bald’ /ɣami/ and /ɣamu/ - ‘we/us’ and ‘you’

Distinguished by level of stricture

/patu/ and /petu/ - ‘stone’ and ‘mangrove’ /tina/ and /tini/ - ‘thousand ‘ and ‘body’ /neka/ and /nika/ - ‘slippery cabbage’ and ‘fire’ /kopi/ and /kupi/ - ‘lake’ and ‘to pick’

Consonant Inventory

Ughele has 18 consonants and no consonant clusters, unless spoken accidentally.

Stops

Ughele contains bilabial, alveolar and velar stops. These are /b + p/ , /d + t/ and /g + k/ respectively. As well as voiced and unvoiced pairs for all plosives. - /ba/ and /pa/ /made/ and /mate/ (four and die/dead) /poga/ and /poka/ (to make pudding/pudding and nail) All voiced stops are pre-nasalised, however the degree of this varies between speakers. Pronunciation of this runs from barely audible nasalisation to almost fully nasalised segments. E.g. /b/ → /b̃/, /d/ → /d̃/, /g/ → /g̃/

Nasal and oral pairs for all voiced stops . E.g. /b/ → /m/, /d/ → /n/, /g/ → /ŋ/
Voiced bilabial nasals and non-nasals E.g. /ma/ and /ba/, /na/ and /da/
Voiced velar nasals and non-nasals E.g. /mamaŋa/ open → /mamaga/ a fish species
Voiced bilabial, alveolar and velar stops E.g. /mabo/ tired → /mado/ happy → /mago/ spirit, devil
Unvoiced stops /ka/ (negation indicator), /pa/ (location phrase indicator), /ta/ (possession indicator)
Voiced bilabial/alveolar/velar nasals E.g. /madi/ obey, /nadi/ sagopalm pudding, /ŋadi/ sharp, long

Alveolar Trill

There is only one found in Ughele, this is in the lexeme /arozo/ (rope)

Fricatives

Labiodental, alveolar, velar and glottal /v/, /s/, /z/, /ɣ/ and /h/
Labiodental /v/ and velar /ɣ/ are voiced and → /ɣoi/ you and /voi/ to put
Glottal fricatives are unvoiced /puha/ to wipe and /pusa/ to tie
Voiced and unvoiced alveolars /soi/ hot drink and /zoi/ penis

The Affricate d͡ʒ

This post-alveolar affricate is sometimes realised as a palatal nasal stop /ɲ/ , although this is relatively rare in spoken language and therefore is speaker-dependent. /d͡ʒ/ → /ɲ/ ~ /d͡ʒ/ Thus ‘ngajiri’ (angry) may be pronounced /ŋad͡ʒiri/ or /ŋapiri/

Approximants

Ughele contains one alveolar lateral approximant /l/ and one labial velar /w/. However /w/ only occurs in a small set of loanwords from English and Roviana (another Solomon Island language originally developed for trade) Window - /wida/ Week - /wiki/ Win - /wini/ ‘Vaseni’ Year - /waseni/

Minimal Pairs Based on Manner of Articulation

Voiced alveolar plosive /mada/ ‘to let’, and fricative, /maza/ ‘flesh’ Unvoiced alveolar plosive /tabu/ ‘holy’, and fricative /sabu/ ‘hunt’ Voiced velar plosive ' /gu/ ‘1st/p possessive’, and fricative /ɣu/ ‘just’

Written language

Prior to the efforts of Frostad et al. Ughele had no documented history or written language standard. After these efforts Ughele is now written in Latin script as shown in these notes.

Morphology

Pronouns and Person Marking

Ughele, like many other Oceanic languages, possesses a complex pronominal system that includes personal, relative and interrogative pronouns (Frostad, 2012, p. 81-88).

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns predominate in terms of quantity; there are six types of pronoun forms: independent pronouns, preverbal subject partial clitics, postverbal subject pronouns, object clitics, preposed possessive pronouns and attributive suffixes (Frostad, 2012, p. 81-88). Personal pronouns are marked for number and clusivity. In each of these types, distinctions are made between singular and plural forms, as well as 1st. 2nd and 3rd person (Frostad, 2012, p. 81). Inclusive and exclusive forms for 1st person plural are separated; the inclusive form extends to include the addressee whereas the addressee is then excluded from the extension of the exclusive form (Frostad, 2012, p. 81). There are partial formal similarities, and in some cases a complete overlap of forms between the types (Frostad, 2012, p. 81). The table below is an overview of the various types of personal pronouns.

Table 1: Ughele personal pronouns (Frostad, 2012, p. 81).

Person and number	Independent pronouns	Preverbal subject partial clitics	Postverbal subject pronouns	Object clitics	Preposed possessive pronouns	Attributive suffixes
1 SG	rau	gu	gua	-(a)u	gua	-gu
2 SG	ghoi	mu	mua	-(a)gho	mua	-mu
3 SG	ia	na	nana	-a	nana	-na
1 PL INCL	ghita	da	nada	-ghita	nada	-da
1 PL EXCL	ghami	ma	mami	-ghami	mami	-mama
2 PL	ghamu	mu	miu	-ghamu	miu	-miu
3 PL	rie	di	dia	-ni	dia	-di

Personal pronouns in Ughele can occupy various positions throughout the clause, with some types being more restricted in their use than others.

Independent pronouns

Independent pronouns may act as the head of a noun phrase, taking on the forms of subject, direct object, or indirect object as a complement to prepositions (Frostad, 2012, p. 81). They may also appear in possessive constructions.

(1)	(..)	meke	naghe	rie	ka	ru,
	and	say	PRO:3PL	CARD	two
	ghita	ka	ru	kai	tuterei	kaloa	polo	(..)
	PRO:1PL.INCL	CARD	two	NEG	quick	leave	if
	‘(..) and the two said, we [two] won’t leave quickly if (..)’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 82)

Above is an example of the 3rd person plural pronoun rie and 1st person plural exclusive pronoun ghita in noun phrases headed by pronouns. The numeral modifier ka ru follows the pronoun head, whereas it would typically precede a noun head (Frostad, 2012, p. 82).

Ughele has object marking clitics and two different sets of subject markers, and these occur in specific fixed positions relative to the verb (Frostad, 2012, 169).

Object clitics

Object clitics are pronominal forms, which only occur with verb stems and only mark direct object (Frostad, 2012, 85).

Transitive verbs rarely occur without object marking clitics (Frostad, 2012, p. 169), and are either attached directly to the verb stem (2), or follow the transitive suffix, either –i (3) or –ni (4).

1st person singular exclusive object clitic –(a)u attached to verb stem:

(2)	Beto	paiza	rau	mai	kaduvu	na
	finish	there	PRO:1SG	come	arrive	COMM
	tina-gu	meke	mono-au	meke	(..)
	mother-ATTR:1SG	and	massage-OBJ:1SG	and
	‘There I was (and) my mother came and massaged me and (..)’+ (Frostad, 2012, p. 170)

3rd person singular object clitic –a attached to transitive suffix –i:

(3)	Tavet-i-a	rie	na	boboro
	make-TR-OBJ:3SG	PRO:3PL	COMM	b.
	'They made boboro.' (Frostad, 2012, p. 170)

3rd person singular object clitic –a attached to transitive suffix –ni:

(4)	Puzi-ni-a	rie	ka	ru	na
	tie-TR-OBJ:3SG	PRO:3PL	CARD	two	COMM
	ulu-na	meke	(..)
	hair-ATTR:3SG	and
	‘The two tied its hair and (..)’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 170)

Object clitics may be the only referent to the object in the clause (5) or they may occur with a coreferential noun phrase (6) (Frostad, 2012, p. 85).

2nd person singular –(a)gho:

(5)	Ei,	kai	en-ene	legho	ghoi
	hey	NEG	RED-walk	very	PRO:2SG
	leke	lao	kakea	va-mate-gho
	lest	go	some	CAUS-die-PRO:2SG
	ghua	rie	ngeta	naghe	lao
	say	PRO:3PL	three	speak	go
	‘Hey, don’t walk (around like that) lest someone will kill you, said the three.’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 86)

2nd person singular object clitic –(a)gho with coreferential noun phrase 2nd person singular independent pronoun

–ghoi:

(6)	Polo	lao	rau	baeri-gho	ghoi
	if	go	PRO:1SG	befriend-OBJ:2SG	PRO:2SG
	si	lao	mama	ta	ghoi
	then	go	mother	POSS	PRO:2SG
	ngajiri-ni-gho	ghoi
	be.angry-TR-OBJ:2SG	PRO:2SG
	‘If I go ahead and befriend you, your mother will become angry with you.’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 86)

Preverbal subject partial clitics

Preverbal subject marking pronouns in Ughele can appear in the form of partial clitics. These clitics precede the verb complex, but only in very specific constructions (Frostad, p. 82). They cliticize to two particles, the homophonous imperative mood marker ma (7), and conjunction ma ‘then’ (8), and they occur as independent forms indicating pivots in complex clauses (9) (Frostad, 2012, p. 171). This aspect of Ughele's grammar bears resemblance to that of three of its nearest neighbouring languages, Hoava, Roviana and Marovo, with that of Marovo being the most similar (Frostad, 2012, p. 171).

1st person plural inclusive preverbal subject clitic –da attached to mood marker ma:

(7)	Aria,	ma=da	va-mate-a	na	nini
	hurry	IMP=SBJ:1PL.INCL	CAUS-die-OBJ:3SG	COMM	giant
	ghua	rie	ka	ru.
	say	PRO:3PL	CARD	two
	‘Hurry, let’s kill the giant, said the two.’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 172)

2nd person singular preverbal subject clitic –mu attached to conjunction ma:

(8)	Vato	mai-ni-a	mene	na	juke	za
	light	come-TR-OBJ:3SG	first	COMM	lamp	DEM:SG
	beto	ma=mu	paleke	mai-ni-a
	finish	then=SBJ:2SG	carry	come-TR-OBJ:3SG
	‘Go and light the light first then bring it (up).’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 172)

3rd person plural preverbal subject independent form di:

(9)	Vura	ghighiri	makazi	mana	daetonga	di
	go.out	very	bonito	but	nothing	SBJ:3PL
	sena-i	le	di	ghore	pulese.
	get-OBJ:3PL	so	SBJ:3PL	descend	return
	‘There were plenty of bonito but they got nothing so they went back.’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 172)

Postverbal subject pronouns

In Ughele, postverbal subject pronouns overlap completely with preposed possessive pronouns (Frostad, 2012, p. 84). Postverbal subject pronouns mark various types of foci, where the pronouns would refer to the focused constituent (Frostad, 2012, p. 85). Below is an example of the 3rd person plural postverbal subject pronoun used in a sentence.

(10)	Ka	made	mazi	pire
	CARD	four	sibling	DEM:PL
	hiva	lao	suve	dia
	want	go	swim	SBJ:3PL
	The four sisters wanted to go swimming.’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 85)

Possessive Constructions

Possession in Ughele, as in many Oceanic languages, can be sorted into two types of construction, direct and indirect. Direct possessive constructions involve a prenominal attributive suffix, while the indirect possessive constructions distinguished between three further types, two which express possession through prepositional phrases, one with the preposition ta, the other with the preposition taga. The third indirect possessive construction uses a possessive pronoun which modifies the possessum noun. (Frostad, 2012, p.117) Ughele also distinguishes alienable possession from inalienable possession, and this influences to varying degrees which construction will be used. However, it is important to note that inalienable and alienable possession distinction is not a so much a binary construction but rather a spectrum, which demonstrates tendencies for different relationships between possessor and possessum to take certain possessive constructions. Table 2 illustrates the general tendencies for correlation between semantic meaning and choice of possessive construction.

Table 2: Use of possessive construction in relation to semantic meaning. (Frostad, 2012,p.118)

	Direct POSS constr.	ta PP POSS constr.	taga PP POSS constr.	Possessive pronoun
Body parts	X	X	(X)
Bodily products	X
Other body related items	X	X
Parts of a whole	X
Kinship terms	X	X	(X)
Spatial relations	X
Unowned possession	X	X		(X)
Actions carried out		X	(X)
Actions undergone			(X)
Ownership			X	X

Direct Possessive Construction

The direct possessive construction in Ughele is similar to many Oceanic Languages and identical to Proto Oceanic direct possessive construction. It involves an attributive suffix which occurs prenominally on the possessum noun, this indexes number and person of the possessor as in (11). (Frostad, 2012, p.119)

(11)	Gharo-a	mudi-gu!
	scratch-OBJ:3SG	back-ATTR:SG
	'Scratch my back!' (Frostad, 2012, p.121)

Generally, intrinsically inalienable possession takes the indirect possessive construction. That is, things which the possessor has no real control of their possession over, such as body parts or kinship terms. Direct possessive constructions are used in Ughele mainly for intrinsically inalienable possessive relationships such as the body and its parts, as well as certain kinship terms. Less inherently inalienable possessive relationships may also tend towards a direct possessive construction with entities being referent possessum nouns within the construction when they are a part of a larger whole. (Frostad, 2012, p.123) However, the relationship between lexical items and possessive constructions is by no means stringent. The indirect prepositional constructions, both ta and taga, although more readily ta, may also be used for the same noun, even when there is no semantic difference.

Attributive suffixes are what are often labeled as possessive suffixes in most other Oceanic languages (Frostad, 2012, p. 87), but in Ughele, they also have other functions (Frostad, 2012, p. 87). In direct possessive constructions, attributive suffixes may either agree with the possessor noun (12) or be the only expression of the possessor (13).

(12)	Zighiti	ghighiri	mata-gu	rau	pire
	hurt	very	eye-ATTR:1SG	PRO:1SG	DEM:PL
	‘My eyes hurt really bad (lit. these eyes of mine hurt really bad).’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 119)

(13)	Ghorehe	bagho-na	tingitonga
	gh.	name-ATTR:3SG	thing
	‘Ghorehe is the name of the thing.’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 120)

Attributive suffixes are also used to derive nominal attributive modifiers from adjectival verbs, indicating the number and person of the referent of the head noun (14) (Frostad, 2012, p. 87).

(14)	A-ia	kaike	vivinei	panoghoto-na.
	FOC-PRO:3SG	one	story	short-ATTR:3SG
	‘That was a short story.’ (Frostad, 2012, p. 87)

Possessive Constructions using prepositions ta and taga

Two of the three indirect possessive constructions in Ughele use the prepositions, ta or taga. The structure of the construction is identical for either preposition which is used in a prepositional phrase which follows the possessum noun, as in (15) and (16).Within the PP is the preposition, either ta or taga, followed by the possessor noun expressed in a noun phrase. While not as commonly as the direct possessive construction, ta and taga can be used for intrinsically unalienable possession such as body parts, as in (15). (Frostad, 2012 p.127) Indirect possessive constructions using ta are the most frequently used in Frostad's 2012 corpus, being fairly versatile and widely spread across situations. Both ta and taga can be used for kinship terms, inalienable body parts, unowned possessions such as names, as well as for actions carried out by the referent of the possessor noun. (Frostad, 2012, p.130)

(15)	Kololuka	na	vivinei	ta	ghita	pa	Ughele.
	K.	COMM	story	POSS	PRO:1PL.INCL	LOC	U

‘Kololuka is the story of us in Ughele.’ (Frostad, 2012, p.126)

(16)	A-ia	ghu	na	vivinei	site	taga	rau.
	FOC-PRO:1SG	EMPH	COMM	story	little	POSS	PRO:1SG

‘That was my little story.' (Frostad, 2012, p.126)

Possessive constructions using a possessive pronoun

Preposed possessive pronouns which modify a possessum noun make up one of the three indirect possessive marking strategies in Ughele (Frostad, p. 86). The possessor may or may not be expressed in a noun phrase.

(17)	Ghila-ni-a	rau	mua	rineka	ghoi.
	know-TR-OBJ:3SG	PRO:1SG	POSS:2SG	language	PRO:2SG

‘I understand your language (Lit. I know your language.)’ (Frostad, 2012, p.132)

(18)	Leana	ghighiri	ko	na	mua	v<in>aritokai	ko (..)
	thank very	DIR	COMM	POSS:2SG	<NOM>DISTR-help	DIR

‘Thank (you) very much for your collaboration with (..)’ (Frostad. 2012. p.132)

The previous two examples illustrates the flexibility in the possessive pronoun construction when expressing a possessor noun. In (17) the possessor is expressed in a noun phrase, specifically the 2nd person singular pronoun ghoi, while (18) does not express a possessor at all. All other forms of possessive pronouns are compiled in the table below.

Table 3: Possessor Pronouns (Frostad, 2012, p.133)

	SG	PL
1 INCL		nada
1 EXCL	gua	mami
2 .	mua	miu
3	nana	dia

References

Ughele at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)

1. Frostad, Haraldstad Benedicte. "A Grammar of Ughele: a Language of the Solomon Islands" LOT Publishing. The Netherlands. 2012

2. Ughele at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)

3. Jump up ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Ughele". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

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[e18-1] Ughele at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)