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47-657: The Niue Assembly or Niue Parliament ( Niuean : Niue Fono Ekepule ) is the legislature of Niue . It consists of 20 members; 14 representatives of the villages and 6 elected on a common island-wide roll. Members are directly elected by universal suffrage, and serve a three-year term. Niue follows the Westminster system of government, with the Premier elected by the Assembly and the Cabinet drawn from it. The Assembly

94-479: A few rhotic dialects, such as Scottish English and Northern Irish English . It also plays a lesser phonetic role in Cantonese , unlike in other varieties of Chinese , which do not have phonemic vowel length distinctions. Many languages do not distinguish vowel length phonemically, meaning that vowel length does not change meaning. However, the amount of time a vowel is uttered can change based on factors such as

141-522: A following ā: fā, gā, hā, kā, lā, mā, nā, pā, tā, vā, rā, sā . Vowel length can be marked with a macron ; however, this is not always done. As with many languages, writing was brought to Niue in connection with religion, in this case with Christianity by missionaries educated in Samoa . This has led to some Samoan influences in morphology and grammar and also to a noticeable one in spelling: as in Samoan,

188-607: A member of the Assembly is elected Speaker, they must resign their seat. The Speaker does not vote in proceedings, and does not enjoy a casting vote. The current Speaker is Hima Douglas . Elections are held under a simple plurality system , with electors in the fourteen villages electing one member per village by majority vote, and six members from a common roll. Electors and candidates must be either New Zealand citizens or permanent residents of Niue, continually resident for at least three years at some point, and ordinarily resident for twelve months prior to enrolment as an elector or, as

235-431: A result of the elision of a historical intervocalic consonant. Two adjacent identical short vowels are always pronounced separately, as are combinations of any two long vowels or a short and a long vowel; two adjacent different short vowels may undergo hiatus or form a diphthong. This must be determined from the morphology or etymology of the word. The basic structure of a Niuean syllable is (C)V(V); all syllables end in

282-491: A secondary stress. The Niuean language does not contain the glottal stop , which is present in its closest relative, Tongan . This has caused some distinct words to merge. For example, Tongan taʻu ('year') and tau ('fight') have merged in Niuean as tau ('year; fight'). Niuean orthography is largely phonemic; that is, one letter stands for one sound and vice versa . The traditional alphabet order, given with

329-1065: A shift: /kjauto/ → /kjoːto/ . Another example is shōnen ( boy ): /seuneɴ/ → /sjoːneɴ/ [ɕoːneɴ] . As noted above, only a relatively few of the world's languages make a phonemic distinction between long and short vowels. Some families have many such languages, examples being the Dravidian languages and the Finno-Ugric languages . Other languages have fewer relatives with vowel length, including Arabic , Japanese , Scottish Gaelic . There are also older languages such as Sanskrit , Biblical Hebrew , and Latin which have phonemic vowel length but no descendants that preserve it. In Latin and Hungarian, some long vowels are analyzed as separate phonemes from short vowels: Vowel length contrasts with more than two phonemic levels are rare, and several hypothesized cases of three-level vowel length can be analysed without postulating this typologically unusual configuration. Estonian has three distinctive lengths, but

376-477: A single vowel phoneme, which may have then become split in two phonemes. For example, the Australian English phoneme /æː/ was created by the incomplete application of a rule extending /æ/ before certain voiced consonants, a phenomenon known as the bad–lad split . An alternative pathway to the phonemicization of allophonic vowel length is the shift of a vowel of a formerly-different quality to become

423-622: A third one was then introduced. For example, the Finnic imperative marker * -k caused the preceding vowels to be articulated shorter. After the deletion of the marker, the allophonic length became phonemic, as shown in the example above. In the International Phonetic Alphabet the sign ː (not a colon, but two triangles facing each other in an hourglass shape ; Unicode U+02D0 ) is used for both vowel and consonant length. This may be doubled for an extra-long sound, or

470-448: A vowel or diphthong, and may start with at most one consonant. Consonant clusters in borrowed words are broken up with epenthetic vowels , e.g. English 'tractor' becomes tuleketā . The stress on a Niuean word is nearly always on the penult (second-to-last syllable), though multi-syllable words ending in a long vowel put primary stress on the final long vowel and secondary stress on the penult. Long vowels in other positions also attract

517-626: Is [poʃ] "guava", [poˑʃ] "spider", [poːʃ] "knot". In Dinka the longest vowels are three moras long, and so are best analyzed as overlong e.g. /oːː/ . Four-way distinctions have been claimed, but these are actually long-short distinctions on adjacent syllables. For example, in Kikamba , there is [ko.ko.na] , [kóó.ma̋] , [ko.óma̋] , [nétónubáné.éetɛ̂] "hit", "dry", "bite", "we have chosen for everyone and are still choosing". In many varieties of English, vowels contrast with each other both in length and in quality, and descriptions differ in

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564-526: Is a short vowel found in a syllable immediately preceded by a stressed short vowel: i-s o . Among the languages with distinctive vowel length, there are some in which it may occur only in stressed syllables, such as in Alemannic German , Scottish Gaelic and Egyptian Arabic . In languages such as Czech , Finnish , some Irish dialects and Classical Latin , vowel length is distinctive also in unstressed syllables. In some languages, vowel length

611-441: Is contrastive vowel length in closed syllables between long and short /e/ and /ɐ/ . The following are minimal pairs of length: In most varieties of English, for instance Received Pronunciation and General American , there is allophonic variation in vowel length depending on the value of the consonant that follows it: vowels are shorter before voiceless consonants and are longer when they come before voiced consonants. Thus,

658-623: Is descended from the Island Council established under the Cook Islands Act 1915 . This was disbanded in 1959 and reconstituted as the Assembly, which was successively granted greater control. The Assembly assumed full law-making power within the constitution upon self-government in 1974. The Assembly is physically located in Alofi . The Assembly is presided over by a Speaker, elected by its members from outside their ranks. If

705-426: Is distinctive in Niuean; vowels are either long or short. Furthermore, two adjacent identical vowels (whether short-short, short-long, long-short, or long-long) form a rearticulated vowel ; the sound is distinct from one long vowel. Both short and long vowels can occur in any position. All short vowels may combine with one another to form diphthongs. The possible diphthongs are outlined in the table below. Hiatus

752-404: Is often reinforced by allophonic vowel length, especially when it is lexical. For example, French long vowels are always in stressed syllables. Finnish , a language with two phonemic lengths, indicates the stress by adding allophonic length, which gives four distinctive lengths and five physical lengths: short and long stressed vowels, short and long unstressed vowels, and a half-long vowel, which

799-403: Is sometimes better analyzed as a sequence of two identical vowels. In Finnic languages , such as Finnish, the simplest example follows from consonant gradation : haka → haan . In some cases, it is caused by a following chroneme , which is etymologically a consonant: jää "ice" ← Proto-Uralic * jäŋe . In non-initial syllables, it is ambiguous if long vowels are vowel clusters; poems written in

846-475: Is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration . In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, for example in Arabic , Czech , Dravidian languages (such as Tamil ), some Finno-Ugric languages (such as Finnish and Estonian ), Japanese , Kyrgyz , Samoan , and Xhosa . Some languages in

893-447: Is the separate pronunciation of two adjacent vowels, as opposed to diphthongs , which are written as two letters but pronounced as one sound. These two vowels may be the same or be different ones. Hiatus typically occurs across morpheme boundaries, such as when a prefix ending with a vowel comes before a root beginning with that same vowel. It may also occur, rarely, within monomorphemic words (words that consist of only one morpheme) as

940-533: The THOUGHT vowels can occur, depending on morphology (compare falling [ˈfɔʊlɪn] with aweless [ˈɔəlɪs] ). In Cockney, the main difference between /ɪ/ and /ɪə/ , /e/ and /eə/ as well as /ɒ/ and /ɔə/ is length, not quality, so that his [ɪz] , merry [ˈmɛɹɪi] and Polly [ˈpɒlɪi ~ ˈpɔlɪi] differ from here's [ɪəz ~ ɪːz] , Mary [ˈmɛəɹɪi ~ ˈmɛːɹɪi] and poorly [ˈpɔəlɪi ~ ˈpɔːlɪi] (see cure-force merger ) mainly in length. In broad Cockney,

987-468: The Kalevala meter often syllabicate between the vowels, and an (etymologically original) intervocalic -h- is seen in that and some modern dialects ( taivaan vs. taivahan "of the sky"). Morphological treatment of diphthongs is essentially similar to long vowels. Some old Finnish long vowels have developed into diphthongs, but successive layers of borrowing have introduced the same long vowels again so

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1034-556: The affrication of /t/ to [ ts ] before these vowels and subsequent change of [ts] to [s] . While older foreign borrowings (such as tī from English 'tea') underwent this change along with (or perhaps by analogy with) native words, words borrowed into Niuean after this development retain the original [t] (for example, telefoni and tikulī from 'telephone' and 'degree'). /r/ and /s/ are marginal phonemes, only appearing in foreign borrowings. Some speakers substitute [l] and [t] , respectively. Vowel length

1081-670: The Niue Public Service Commission, or an appropriate Commission of Inquiry respectively. A bill becomes law when passed by the Assembly and certified by the Speaker. There is no Royal Assent . Niuean language Niuean was spoken by 1,600 people on Niue Island (97.4% of the inhabitants) in 1991, as well as by speakers in the Cook Islands , New Zealand , and Tonga , for a total of around 8,000 speakers. There are thus more speakers of Niuean outside

1128-535: The case may be, nomination as a candidate. The power of the Assembly to pass legislation is circumscribed by the constitution. Any member may introduce a bill, but the Assembly may not proceed on bills dealing with financial matters without the consent of the Premier. Bills affecting the criminal law or personal status, the public service or Niuean land may not proceed without a report from the Chief Justice,

1175-447: The contrast between /æ/ and /æʊ/ is also mainly one of length; compare hat [æʔ] with out [æəʔ ~ æːʔ] (cf. the near-RP form [æʊʔ] , with a wide closing diphthong). In the teaching of English, vowels are commonly said to have a "short" and a "long" version. The terms "short" and "long" are not accurate from a linguistic point of view—at least in the case of Modern English—as the vowels are not actually short and long versions of

1222-503: The dialects are mainly in vocabulary or in the form of some words. Examples of differences in vocabulary are volu (Tafiti) vs matā (Motu) for scrape, scraper and lala (Tafiti) vs kautoga (Motu) for guava (plant) ; examples of differences in form include hafule (T) / afule (M), aloka / haloka , nai / nei , ikiiki / likiliki , and malona / maona . [ s ] is an allophone of /t/ before front vowels (both long and short /i/ and /e/ ); this most likely arose from

1269-412: The diphthong and the long vowel now again contrast ( nuotti "musical note" vs. nootti "diplomatic note"). In Japanese, most long vowels are the results of the phonetic change of diphthongs ; au and ou became ō , iu became yū , eu became yō , and now ei is becoming ē . The change also occurred after the loss of intervocalic phoneme /h/ . For example, modern Kyōto ( Kyoto ) has undergone

1316-598: The island itself than on the island. Most inhabitants of Niue are bilingual in English . In the early 1990s, 70% of the speakers of Niuean lived in New Zealand. Niuean consists of two main dialects, the older Motu dialect from the north of the island and the Tafiti dialect of the south. The words mean, respectively, the people of the island and the strangers (or people from a distance ). The differences between

1363-430: The lateral [ l ] than fall [fɔʊː] . The distinction between [ɔʊ] and [ɔʊː] exists only word-internally before consonants other than intervocalic /l/ . In the morpheme-final position only [ɔʊː] occurs (with the THOUGHT vowel being realized as [ɔə ~ ɔː ~ ɔʊə] ), so that all [ɔʊː] is always distinct from or [ɔə] . Before the intervocalic /l/ [ɔʊː] is the banned diphthong, though here either of

1410-419: The long [ɔʊː] corresponds to the non-prevocalic sequence /ɔːl/ (see l-vocalization ). The following are minimal pairs of length: The difference is lost in running speech, so that fault falls together with fort and fought as [ˈfɔʊʔ] or [ˈfoːʔ] . The contrast between the two diphthongs is phonetic rather than phonemic, as the /l/ can be restored in formal speech: [ˈfoːɫt] etc., which suggests that

1457-446: The past likely had the distinction even though their descendants do not, with an example being Latin and its descendent Romance languages . Whether vowel length alone changes word-meanings in English depends on the particular dialect; it is able to do so in a few non-rhotic dialects, such as Australian English , Lunenburg English , New Zealand English , South African English , and possibly some Southern British English , and in

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1504-470: The phonetic characteristics of the sounds around it, for instance whether the vowel is followed by a voiced or a voiceless consonant. Languages that do distinguish vowel length phonemically usually only distinguish between short vowels and long vowels . Very few languages distinguish three phonemic vowel lengths; some that do so are Estonian , Luiseño , and Mixe . However, languages with two vowel lengths may permit words in which two adjacent vowels are of

1551-535: The presence or absence of phonological length ( chroneme ). The usual long-short pairings for RP are /iː + ɪ/, /ɑː + æ/, /ɜ: + ə/, /ɔː + ɒ/, /u + ʊ/, but Jones omits /ɑː + æ/. This approach is not found in present-day descriptions of English. Vowels show allophonic variation in length and also in other features according to the context in which they occur. The terms tense (corresponding to long ) and lax (corresponding to short ) are alternative terms that do not directly refer to length. In Australian English , there

1598-570: The pronunciation of bared as [beːd] , creating a contrast with the short vowel in bed [bed] . Another common source is the vocalization of a consonant such as the voiced velar fricative [ɣ] or voiced palatal fricative or even an approximant, as the English 'r'. A historically-important example is the laryngeal theory , which states that long vowels in the Indo-European languages were formed from short vowels, followed by any one of

1645-426: The relative importance given to these two features. Some descriptions of Received Pronunciation and more widely some descriptions of English phonology group all non-diphthongal vowels into the categories "long" and "short", convenient terms for grouping the many vowels of English. Daniel Jones proposed that phonetically similar pairs of long and short vowels could be grouped into single phonemes, distinguished by

1692-424: The same quality: Japanese ほうおう , hōō , "phoenix", or Ancient Greek ἀάατος [a.áː.a.tos] , "inviolable". Some languages that do not ordinarily have phonemic vowel length but permit vowel hiatus may similarly exhibit sequences of identical vowel phonemes that yield phonetically long vowels, such as Georgian გააადვილებ , gaaadvileb [ɡa.a.ad.vil.eb] , "you will facilitate it". Stress

1739-699: The same sound; the terminology is a historical holdover due to their arising from proper vowel length in Middle English . The phonetic values of these vowels are shown in the table below. In some types of phonetic transcription (e.g. pronunciation respelling ), "long" vowel letters may be marked with a macron; for example, ⟨ā⟩ may be used to represent the IPA sound /eɪ/ . This is sometimes used in dictionaries, most notably in Merriam-Webster (see Pronunciation respelling for English for more). Similarly,

1786-465: The several "laryngeal" sounds of Proto-Indo-European (conventionally written h 1 , h 2 and h 3 ). When a laryngeal sound followed a vowel, it was later lost in most Indo-European languages, and the preceding vowel became long. However, Proto-Indo-European had long vowels of other origins as well, usually as the result of older sound changes, such as Szemerényi's law and Stang's law . Vowel length may also have arisen as an allophonic quality of

1833-458: The short counterpart of a vowel pair. That too is exemplified by Australian English, whose contrast between /a/ (as in duck ) and /aː/ (as in dark ) was brought about by a lowering of the earlier /ʌ/ . Estonian , a Finnic language , has a rare phenomenon in which allophonic length variation has become phonemic after the deletion of the suffixes causing the allophony. Estonian had already inherited two vowel lengths from Proto-Finnic , but

1880-411: The short vowel letters are rarely represented in teaching reading of English in the classroom by the symbols ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, o͝o, and ŭ. The long vowels are more often represented by a horizontal line above the vowel: ā, ē, ī, ō, o͞o, and ū. Vowel length may often be traced to assimilation . In Australian English, the second element [ə] of a diphthong [eə] has assimilated to the preceding vowel, giving

1927-608: The sound /ŋ/ ( Help:IPA ) is written g , rather than ng as in Tongan and some other Polynesian languages with this sound. (McEwen (1970) uses ng in his dictionary; however, this feature of his spelling was not popular, particularly since it conflicted with the spelling used in the Niuean Bible.) Niuean can be considered a VSO language; however, one analysis of Niuean uses ergative terminology, in which case it may be better to speak of verb–agent–patient word order. Because

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1974-493: The third is suprasegmental , as it has developed from the allophonic variation caused by now-deleted grammatical markers. For example, half-long 'aa' in saada comes from the agglutination * saa+tta+k */sɑːtˑɑk/ "send (saatta-) +(imperative)", and the overlong 'aa' in saada comes from * saa+dak "get+(infinitive)". As for languages that have three lengths, independent of vowel quality or syllable structure, these include Dinka , Mixe , Yavapai and Wichita . An example from Mixe

2021-518: The top half ( ˑ ) may be used to indicate that a sound is "half long". A breve is used to mark an extra-short vowel or consonant. Estonian has a three-way phonemic contrast : Although not phonemic, a half-long distinction can also be illustrated in certain accents of English: Some languages make no distinction in writing. This is particularly the case with ancient languages such as Old English . Modern edited texts often use macrons with long vowels, however. Australian English does not distinguish

2068-435: The traditional names of the letters, is ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, fā, gā, hā, kā, lā, mō, nū, pī, tī, vī, rō, sā . Note that rō and sā as introduced letters are ordered at the end. Sperlich (1997) uses an alphabetical order based on English for his dictionary: a, ā, e, ē, f, g, h, i, ī, k, l, m, n, o, ō, p, s, t, u, ū, v ( r is left out since no words start with this letter). He recommends that consonants be named consistently with

2115-425: The underlying form of [ˈfɔʊːʔ] is /ˈfoːlt/ (John Wells says that the vowel is equally correctly transcribed with ⟨ ɔʊ ⟩ or ⟨ oʊ ⟩, not to be confused with GOAT /ʌʊ/, [ɐɤ] ). Furthermore, a vocalized word-final /l/ is often restored before a word-initial vowel, so that fall out [fɔʊl ˈæəʔ] (cf. thaw out [fɔəɹ ˈæəʔ] , with an intrusive /r/ ) is somewhat more likely to contain

2162-481: The unmarked case is the absolutive, Niuean transitive verb constructions often appear passive in a literal translation. Compare: Kua TAM kitia see e ERG ia he e ART kalahimu crab Kua kitia e ia e kalahimu TAM see ERG he ART crab "The crab was seen by him." Kua TAM kitia see e ART kalahimu crab Kua kitia e kalahimu TAM see ART crab Vowel length In linguistics , vowel length

2209-537: The vowel in bad /bæd/ is longer than the vowel in bat /bæt/ . Also compare neat / n iː t / with need / n iː d / . The vowel sound in "beat" is generally pronounced for about 190 milliseconds, but the same vowel in "bead" lasts 350 milliseconds in normal speech, the voiced final consonant influencing vowel length. Cockney English features short and long varieties of the closing diphthong [ɔʊ] . The short [ɔʊ] corresponds to RP /ɔː/ in morphologically closed syllables (see thought split ), whereas

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