Tamambo language
| Tamambo | |
|---|---|
| Malo | |
| Native to | Vanuatu |
| Region | Malo Island, Espiritu Santo |
|
Native speakers
|
4,000 (2001) |
|
Austronesian
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | malo1243 |
Tamambo, or Malo, is an Oceanic language spoken by 4,000 people on Malo and nearby islands in Vanuatu.
/i u/ become [j w] respectively when unstressed and before another vowel. /o/ may also become [w] for some speakers.
The prenasalized postalveolar stop /ᶮɟ/ is often affricated and voiceless, i.e. [ᶮtʃ].
Younger speakers often realize /β/ as [f] initially and [v] medially, while /βʷ/ is often replaced by [w].
/x/ is usually realized as [x] initially, but some speakers use [h]. Medially, it may be pronounced as any of [x ɣ h ɦ ɡ].
Few speakers of Tamambo are literate, and there is no standard orthography. Spelling conventions used include:
In Tamambo, personal pronouns distinguish between first, second, and third person. There is an inclusive and exclusive marking on the first-person plural and gender is not marked. There are four classes of pronouns, which is not uncommon in other Austronesian languages:
Independent pronouns behave grammatically similarly to other NPs in that they can occur in the same slot as a subject NP, functioning as the head of a NP. However, in regular discourse, they are not used a great deal due the obligatory nature of cross-referencing subject pronouns. Use of independent pronouns is often seen as unnecessary and unusual except in the following situations:
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