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23-438: More specifically, it is the shared ancestor of the following modern languages: Hiw , Lo-Toga , Lehali , Löyöp , Volow , Mwotlap , Lemerig , Vera'a , Vurës , Mwesen , Mota , Nume , Dorig , Koro , Olrat , Lakon , and Mwerlap . Proto-Torres-Banks, as reconstructed with the comparative method from the attested daughter languages , evidently represented an early, mutually intelligible chain of Oceanic dialects in

46-428: A glide / j / whenever it's followed by another vowel. The high back rounded vowel [ u ] occurs, but only as an allophone of /ʉ/ and /ə/ after labio-velar consonants. /ʉ/ always becomes [u] after a labio-velar, while /ə/ only becomes [u] in pre-tonic syllables, and then only optionally. Hiw has 14 consonants. All plosives are voiceless. The historical phoneme *l has shifted to /j/ , which

69-488: A nasal. However, it can come after a nasal, as in /mɡ͡ʟe/ ‘wrath’. The only consonant found after /ɡ͡ʟ/ is /j/ - e.g. /ɡ͡ʟje/ ‘sweep’. Hiw has a similar grammatical structure to the other living Torres–Banks languages . In terms of lexical flexibility , Hiw has been assessed to be “grammatically flexible”, but “lexically rigid”. The vast majority of the language's lexemes belongs to just one word class (noun, adjective, verb, adverb…); yet each of those word classes

92-427: A part of the early North-Central Vanuatu linkage with some dialectal variation across different island groups, before they eventually disintegrated into mutually unintelligible languages. Elements of the proto-language have been proposed by linguist A. François : vowels and consonants, personal pronouns, space system, vocabulary. Proto-Torres-Banks had 5 phonemic vowels, /i e a o u/, and 16 consonants: Following

115-598: A process of vowel deletion took place whereby every second vowel, being unstressed, was dropped: this resulted in an increase in the number of vowel phonemes – a process known as transphonologization . For example, PTB *laŋi "wind" > HIW [j ɔ ŋ] , MTP Tooltip Mwotlap language [l ɛ ŋ] , giving rise to phonemes /ɔ/ and /ɛ/ respectively. Words which initially had 4 syllables were reduced to 2 syllables (e.g. POc *RapiRapi "evening" > PTB *raβiˈraβi > MSN Tooltip Mwesen language  /rɛβrɛβ/ [rɛɸˈrɛɸ] ); *CVCV disyllables were reduced to

138-441: A single CVC syllable (e.g. POc *roŋoR "to hear" > PTB *roŋo > LKN Tooltip Lakon language  /rɔŋ/); words with 3 syllables ended up with 2, including *CVCVV which became *CVCV (e.g. POc *panua "island, land" > PTB *βanua > LKN Tooltip Lakon language  /βanʊ/). In Mota , only single high vowels were dropped, evident even in the earliest records: e.g. *tolu "three" > /tol/. In

161-577: A stressed schwa. Polysyllabic words have secondary stress , which falls on every second syllable from the primary stressed syllable, going leftwards. For example: [ˌβəɣəˈβaɣə] 'speak'. The syllable structure of Hiw is CCVC, where the only obligatory element is V: e.g. /tg͡ʟɔɣ/ 'throw ( PL )'; /βti/ 'star'; /kʷg͡ʟɪ/ 'dolphin'; /g͡ʟɵt/ 'tie'. Hiw allows consonant gemination, word-medially and initially. These geminated consonants can be analyzed as C 1 C 2 consonant clusters in which both consonants happen to be identical. An example of gemination

184-406: Is always pronounced as an approximant , it is best treated as an obstruent with regards to sonority: this interpretation accounts for words like /wte/ 'small', which would otherwise constitute a sonority reversal . Phonological evidence shows that /ɡ͡ʟ/ patterns as a liquid, more sonorous than nasals but less sonorous than the glide /j/ . Unlike the obstruents, /ɡ͡ʟ/ cannot be followed by

207-688: Is an Oceanic language spoken on the island of Hiw , in the Torres Islands of Vanuatu . With about 280 speakers, Hiw is considered endangered . Hiw is distinct from Lo-Toga , the other language of the Torres group. All Hiw speakers are bilingual in Bislama , and most also speak Lo-Toga. The language is named after the island . Hiw has 9 phonemic vowels . These are all short monophthongs /i ɪ e ʉ ɵ ə o ɔ a/ : The three central vowels /ʉ/, /ɵ/, /ə/ are all rounded . /i/ becomes

230-482: Is compatible with a large number of syntactic functions. The language presents various forms of verb serialization . Its system of personal pronouns contrasts clusivity , and distinguishes three numbers (singular, dual , plural). Together with its neighbour Lo-Toga , Hiw has developed a rich system of verbal number , whereby certain verbs alternate their root depending on the number of their main participant. Hiw has 33 such pairs of suppletive verbs, which

253-609: Is in /tin/ 'buy' vs /ttin/ 'hot'. Consonants and vowels may also be lengthened for expressive purposes, for example: /ne maβə/ ‘it’s heavy’ becomes [ne mːaβə] ‘it’s so heavy!’. Hiw's phonology follows the Sonority Sequencing Principle , with the following language-specific sonority hierarchy: vowels > glides > liquids > nasals > obstruents In syllable onsets, C 1 may not be more sonorous than C 2 . Fricatives and plosives are not distinguished with regard to sonority. Even though /w/

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276-482: Is predictable in Hiw, except in the case of words which only contain /ə/ . Generally, primary stress falls on the last syllable which does not contain /ə/ . For example: [mɔˈw ɪ ] 'moon', [ˈw ɔ təjə] 'maybe'. In the case of words whose only vowel is schwa, stress is unpredictable: thus [βəˈj ə ] ' pandanus leaf' is oxytone and [ˈt ə pjə] 'dish' is paroxytone . These are the only polysyllabic words that may have

299-427: Is sometimes noted in the orthography, using a ⟨’⟩ mark. Lakon has 16 phonemic vowels. These include 8 short /i ɪ ɛ æ a ɔ ʊ u/ and 8 long vowels /iː ɪː ɛː æː aː ɔː ʊː uː/. Historically, the phonemicisation of vowel length originates in the compensatory lengthening of short vowels when the alveolar trill /r/ was lost syllable-finally. This is considered to be a very recent change, perhaps within

322-540: Is the highest number recorded so far among the world's languages. Spatial reference in Hiw is based on a system of geocentric ( absolute ) directionals. That space system is largely reminiscent of the one widespread among Oceanic languages , yet also shows some innovations that make it unique. Lakon language Lakon is an Oceanic language , spoken on the west coast of Gaua island in Vanuatu . The language name Lakon [laˈkɔn] refers originally to

345-566: Is unique within the Torres–Banks languages . Hiw is the only Austronesian language whose consonant inventory includes a prestopped velar lateral approximant /ɡ͡ʟ/ ; this complex segment is Hiw's only native liquid . Historically, this complex segment was a voiced alveolar trill /r/ (which is why it is written as r̄ ). The voiced alveolar trill, spelt as r , appears in recent loanwords. In some other, perhaps older, loanwords, alveolar trills have been borrowed as velar laterals. Stress

368-586: The PTB reflexes can be listed in the following table. The pronouns of Proto-Torres-Banks are (from François 2016 : 33-35): The following are reconstructions for numbers 1–10 for PTB: A reconstructed sentence (from François 2009 :191): *Nau 1SG ᵑgu= AO : 1SG = mule return ᵑgu= AO : 1SG = maturu. sleep *Nau ᵑgu= mule ᵑgu= maturu. 1SG AO:1SG= return AO:1SG= sleep 'So I went back and slept.'/'Let me go back and sleep!' Hiw language Hiw (sometimes spelled Hiu )

391-418: The 1880s, Codrington reported cases when Mota had preserved high vowels (e.g. /siwo/ "down"; /tolu/ "three"), which have since disappeared from today's Mota (e.g. /swo/; /tol/). In Hiw , Lo-Toga and Vera'a , the final vowel was retained as a schwa when it was originally lower than the one under stress: e.g. POc *ikan "fish" > PTB *íɣa > HIW  /ɪɣə/, LTG  /iɣə/. In Vera'a,

414-592: The area where it is spoken ‒ namely Lakona Bay , corresponding to the west coast of Gaua. The alternative name Lakona [lakona] is from the Mota language . These names are derived from a Proto-Torres-Banks form * laᵑgona , of unknown meaning. Lakon had four dialects, named Qatareu ( Qätärew [k​͡pʷætæˈrɛw] ), Vure ( Vurē [βuˈrɪ] ), Toglatareu, and Togla. Lakon has 16 phonemic consonants. The glottal stop [ʔ] only occurs before vowels in syllable-initial position. While non-phonemic, it

437-460: The first vowel tends to be deleted or copied after the second vowel, with the exception of Mota and Lakon , which preserve them. Stress fell on the penultimate syllable. Due to the pervasive loss of final vowels, descendant languages usually have stress on the final syllable. Vera'a and Mota have lost stress entirely. In all of the descendant languages except for Mota , vowel hybridization occurred (a form of metaphony or umlaut ). Later,

460-465: The last century, as Codrington still indicates the trill syllable-finally. However, the 1897 Book of Common Prayer in Lakon shows loss of the trill, as evidenced by tataa [taˈtaː] "prayer" (spelled as tata ) for Mota tataro . The system of personal pronouns in Lakon contrasts clusivity , and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual , trial , plural). Spatial reference in Lakon

483-550: The loss of final POc consonants (or dialectal addition of a paragogic vowel), syllable structure in Proto-Torres-Banks was open , i.e. (C)V with optional consonant: e.g. POc *uraŋ "crayfish" > PTB *ura / *uraŋi ; POc *matiruʀ "to sleep" > PTB *matiru ; POc *laŋit "sky" > PTB *laŋi "wind". No descendant language preserves this situation today, but it can still be found in other related languages such as Gela and Uneapa . In trisyllabic words,

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506-552: The northern part of Vanuatu starting from 1000 BCE after Lapita settlement of the archipelago, as evidenced by the pattern of loss and retention of the Proto-Oceanic phoneme *R , which merged with *r in the early history of the North-Central Vanuatu dialect chain. It therefore is not a "true" proto-language in the sense of an undifferentiated language ancestral to all Torres–Banks languages , but rather

529-2043: The schwa became an echo vowel , e.g. POc *pulan "moon" > PTB *βula > *βulə > VRA  /fulʊ/; that final vowel in Vera'a can disappear in phrase-medial position, yielding the form /ful/ for 'moon'.  (2) *niᵑgo > LTG Tooltip Lo-Toga language  /nikə/, LHI Tooltip Lehali language  /nɛk/, LYP Tooltip Löyöp language  /niŋ/, VLW Tooltip Volow language  /nɪŋ/, MTP Tooltip Mwotlap language  /nɪk/, LMG Tooltip Lemerig language  /næk/, VRA Tooltip Vera'a language  /nikɪ/, VRS Tooltip Vurës language  /nɪk/, MSN Tooltip Mwesen language  /nɪk/, MTA Tooltip Mota language  /niko/, NUM Tooltip Nume language  /nik/, DRG Tooltip Dorig language  /nɪk/, KRO Tooltip Koro language (Vanuatu)  /nɪk/, OLR Tooltip Olrat language  /nɪk/, LKN Tooltip Lakon language  /nɪk/, MRL Tooltip Mwerlap language  /nɛ͡ak/  (2) *suwo > HIW Tooltip Hiw language  /ʉw/, LHI Tooltip Lehali language  /hɔw/, LYP Tooltip Löyöp language  /sʊw/, VLW Tooltip Volow language  /hʊ/, MTP Tooltip Mwotlap language  /hʊw/, LMG Tooltip Lemerig language  /sʊw/, VRA Tooltip Vera'a language  /suwʊ/, VRS Tooltip Vurës language  /sʊw/, MSN Tooltip Mwesen language  /sʊw/, LKN Tooltip Lakon language  /hʊw/, MRL Tooltip Mwerlap language  /sʊw/ The historical sound changes that took place from Proto-Oceanic (POc) to Proto-Torres-Banks (PTB) were intricate, yet largely regular. Some have been reconstructed explicitly, whether on vowels or on consonants; others are implicit in published lists of PTB lexical reconstructions. Pervasive phonological sound changes include: Considering each POc proto-phoneme sequentially,

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