Touo language
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The Touo language, also known as Baniata (Mbaniata) or Lokuru, is spoken over the southern part of Rendova Island, located in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.
Classification
Touo is generally seen to be a member of the tentative Central Solomons family, although Glottolog considers it an isolate. Pedrós (2015) cautiously suggests Lavukaleve as the closest relative to Touo. Most of the surrounding languages to Touo belong to the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family.
Names
The Touo language is sometimes called the Baniata (Mbaniata) or Lokuru language, after the largest two villages where the language is spoken. The word Touo comes from the ethnonym that Touo speakers use to refer to themselves.
Phonology
Consonants
Touo consonants are:
Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal Nasal m n ŋ Stop voiceless (p) t (k) voiced b d ɡ ⟨q⟩ Fricative voiceless f s h voiced v z Approximant l ɰ ⟨g⟩
Vowels
Touo has six lax and five tense vowels.
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tense | Lax | Tense | Lax | |
| High | ḭ ⟨ḭ⟩ | i ⟨i⟩ | ṵ ⟨ṵ⟩ | u ⟨u⟩ |
| Mid | ḛ ⟨ḛ⟩ | e ⟨e⟩ | o̰ ⟨o̰⟩ | o ⟨o⟩ |
| Low | a̰ ⟨a̰⟩ | a ⟨a⟩ | ɔ ⟨w⟩ |
Some minimal pairs showing the tense/lax vowel phonemic distinction in Touo:
| Lax | Tense | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Orthography | Gloss | Orthography | Gloss |
| e | road | ḛ | oven |
| avo | garden | a̰vo | four |
| ua | who? | ṵa | eat |
| isi | small | ḭsi | sleep |
Grammar
Word order in Touo is SOV.
Touo has four genders.
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter I (generic)
- neuter II (certain trees)
Only in certain paradigms of the singular number can neuter I and II be distinguished.
Touo distinguishes four numbers.
- singular
- dual
- enumerated (i.e., numerically specified; can be used for both few or many numbers)
- non-enumerated (i.e., not numerically specified; used for numbers greater than three)
See also
Notes
- Paradisec has two collections of Arthur Cappell's materials (, ) that include Touo language materials.
- Dunn, Michael (2005). "Vernacular Literacy in the Touo Language of the Solomon Islands". Current Issues in Language Planning. 6 (2): 239–250. doi:. S2CID .
- Terrill, Angela; Dunn, Michael (2003). "Orthographic design in the Solomon Islands: The social, historical, and linguistic situation of Touo (Baniata)". Written Language & Literacy. 6 (2): 177–192. doi:.
8°35′S 157°18′E/8.58°S 157.30°E/ -8.58; 157.30