ラガ語の言語学的分析
以下で提示するのは、THE STORY OF RAGA:
A MAN'S ETHNOGRAPHY ON HIS OWN SOCIETY (I)
のイントロダクションの部分を修正したものです。そこでは、ラガ語の言語学的分析を試みています。
The writing system of North Raga
has not been thoroughly established yet but
the letters are mostly written in accordance
with the pholological system. According to
Walsh ,the articulated values of the consonant
phonemes are as shown in Table I(Walsh 1982:236-237).
In writing, /bwero/ is realized
as bwero(ear),/vwavwa/ as vwavwa (aunt),/sabuga/ as sabuga (tabooed) and so on. The phonemes /v/,/vw/,/t/,and
/g/ change into /b/,/bw/,/d/, and
/ngg/ respectively under certain syntactic
conditions(Walsh 1982:237). The same is true
of the corresponding letters. Thus, when
/tai/changes into /dai/in certain syntactic
conditions, tai is replaced by dai(tai = dai = to cut). An exception to such an
orthographic principle appears in the case
of the letters“g" and “k". The
phoneme /g/in Table I is composed of the
voicedvelar fricative [γ], and the voiceless
velar fricative [x]. In many cases /g/
is realized as “g", but sometimes as
“k", especially when it is pronounced
as [x]. In the following text, we will find
that for the word /gea/, gea is used in some places and kea in other places.
BILABIAL | LABIODENTAL | LABIOVELAR | ALVEOLAR | VELAR | PHARYNGEAL | |
STOPS −V +V ±V +V+L +V+P |
b bw |
t d |
k ngg |
|||
FRICATIVES ーV ±V ±V+L |
v vw |
s |
g |
h |
||
NASALS +V +V+L |
m mw |
n |
ng |
|||
TRILL +V |
r |
|||||
LATERAL +V |
l |
|||||
SEMI-VOWEL +V |
w |
|||||
V = voicing, L = labio-velarisation,
P = homorganic pre-nasalisation
Table
I
According to Tryon,the Raga language
is the Oceanic type in the Melanesianof Austronesian
(1972:70). It is spoken in the area from
the northern end of Raga(Pentecost) Island
to Tasvarongo village. In most languages
of the Oceanic type,personal pronouns are
divided into cardinal and verbal pronouns(Tryon
1973:329). Raga personal pronouns are listed
in Table II. We can see from the table that
the verbal pronoun is a short form of the
cardinal pronoun.
In the languages of Maewo, Ambae,
Santo and Pentecost,vebal pronouns which
semantically indicate the actor appear as
nominative and they are combined with tense
particles to make single units (Tryon 1973:331,1978:887).Such units
in the Raga language are listed in Table
III. The basic tense particlesare mwa, nu,vi and men,which indicates neutral tense,past tense,future
tenseand near-future tense respectively.
They are subject to certain morpho-phonemic
changes.To take nan as an example,it consists of the stem na- whichis the verbal pronoun in the first
person singular and the suffix -n which is a morphophonemic realization of
the past tense particle nu. No verbal pronoun is usually used when
it is in the third personsingular nominative;
in such a case, only the full form of a tense
particle is used (Example 1).
1 Naturigi nu vano.
child φ-past go
(A child went.)
The word nu is the full form of the past tense particle
and the third person singular is shown by
φ.
cardinal pronoun | verbal pronoun | ||
singular |
first person second person third person |
inau ginggo* kea*, gea* |
na- go-* φ-, (ge-*) |
plural |
first person second person first + second third person |
gamai* kimiu* gida* kera* |
ga-* gi-* ta- ra- |
The letters
“g" and “k" are both possible
realizations of /g/. But
/gimiu/ is usually written not as gimiu
but as kimiu and /gera/ not
as gera but as kera.
Table II
tense | |||||
neutral | past | future | near future | ||
sigular |
first person second person third person |
nam gom mwa gem |
nan gon nu |
nav gov vi |
namen gomen men |
plural |
first person second person first + second third person |
gam gim tam ram |
gan gin tan ran |
gav giv tav rav |
gamen gimen tamen ramen |
Table III
There is also a word gem which is composed of ge-(probably a variant of the verbal pronoun
in the third person singular) and -m(neutral tense particle). Although ge-m is interchangeable with mwa, it is rarely used in daily conversation.
It may be an old form. I am not certain whether
the forms ge-n, ge-v, or ge-men are used or not.
In normal declarative sentences of
the Raga language, the noun subject precedes
the corresponding verbal pronoun(Example
1). Cardinal pronouns are usually placed
in the same position as noun subjects, though
some cardinal pronouns are used as objectives
in the same form (Table IV).It seems proper
to distinguish these two cases(Example 2
and 3), so I call the cardinal pronouns in
nominative position independent pronouns.
objective | ||
singular |
first person second person third person |
-au -go, -nigo -a, -e, -i, -nia |
plural |
first person socond person first + second third person |
gamai kimiu gida -ra, -nira |
Table
IV
2 Kimiu gi-m bano.
you independent pronoun you-neutral go
(You go.)
3 Na-n gita kimiu.
I-past see you
(I saw you.)
The cardinal pronoun kea(or gea) is also used as a demonstrative pronoun,to
point at something remote from the speaker.To
point at something near the speaker, keki (or geki) is used(Example 4). However, I will not
refer to kea (or gea) in such usage as an independent pronoun
even though it is used in nominative position.
Kea(or gea) and keki(or geki) are also used as demonstrative adjectives(Example
5). Moreover, kea (or gea) can be used as in Example 6. In such cases,
the meaning of kea (or gea) varies according to context.
4 Hano keki?
what this
(What is this?)
5 Na-m doro boe kea
I-neutral want pig that
(I want that pig.)
6 Wangga nu mai kea mwalanggelo
nu hivo an tahi.
canoe it-past come, therefore young
man he-past go down at sea
(A canoe came; therefore, a young man went
down to the sea.)
The particles used in the possessive
are listed in Table V. Their forms change
in accordance with the kind of noun to which
they attach. Nouns are classified into five
categories. According to Tryon, these categories
are: 1)inalienable objects, 2)a general category,3)edible
objects, 4)drinkables and 5)prized possessions(Tryon
1973:314). The particles in column 1 in Table
V are used as follows: tama-nggu(my father), bwatu-na(his head), or ratahi-n tarabe-ku(mother of my uncle). Those in columns 2
to 5 are used as follows: no-nggu (mine), no-nggu buka(my book), no-n buka(his book), buka non George(George's book), ga-ku (mine), ga-ku damu(my yam), ma-nggu(mine), ma-m niu(your coconut), bila-ku (mine), or bila-n boe(his pig). It is interesting to note that
when people say ma-m wai(your water), the water is drinkable,
while it may not be drinkable when they say no-m wai(your water). In an English version of the
following text,however,I will not attempt
to bring out such delicate semantic differences.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
singular |
first person second person third person |
-nggu,-ku -mwa -na,-n |
nonggu nom(nomwa) non(nona) |
gaku gam(gamwa) gan(gana) |
manggu mam(mamwa) man(mana) |
bilaku bilam(bilamwa) bilan(bilana) |
plural |
first person second person first + second third person |
-mai -miu -da -ra |
nomai nomiu noda nora |
gamai gamiu gada gara |
mamai mamiu mada mara |
bilamai bilamiu bilada bilara |
I1 Inalienable 2 General 3 Edible
4 Drinkable 5 Prized possessions
IThe particles in parentheses are
used in the absolute possessive. The other
partilcles
in columns 2 to 5 are used even
in the absolute possessive. The particles
in column 1 are not so used.
Table
V
It is clear from the above tables
that the Raga language distinguishes between
inclusive“we" and exclusive “we".
Thus, ta-m means “we"-neutral including the hearer,
while ga-m means “we"-neutral excluding the hearer.
The same holds in the case of possessives.
Ga-da, for example, means “(food of) ours(including
the hearer)", while ga-mai means “(food of) ours (excluding the hearer)".
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
tea | rua | tolu | vasi | lima | ono | bitu | vwelu | sivo | hanhvulu |
gaituvwa | gairua | gaitolu | gaivasi | gailima | gaiono | gaibitu | gaivwelu | gaisivo | hanhvulu |
Table
VI
Numerals are listed in Table VI.
The upper row shows cardinal numerals and
the lower ordinal numerals. For the numbers
above ten, the same words are used for both
cardinal and ordinal numerals.Thus“eleven"
is hangvul-domwan-gaituvwa; “twelve" is hangvul-domwan-gairua; and so on.“Twenty" is ngavul-gairua and “thirty”is ngavul-gaitolu.Cardinal numerals are often combined with
verbal pronouns to make single units. Suppose
there are a speaker and two hearers. If the
speaker wants to say something like“we three[you
two and I] will do something", he can
say:
7 ta-tol vi lol
〜
we-including hearer three we-future do
〜
(We three will do 〜.)
If example 7 is in the neutral tense,
it will be ta-m dol lol 〜. When there are one speaker and one hearer,
the speaker says ta-mu-ru(ta- = we-including hearer, -mu- = nuetral, -ru = rua = two) if the tense is present, or ta-ru vi if it is past, or ta-ru-men if it is the near-future. The same can be
said of possessives and objectives. “Our[you
and me two] book" is expressed as no-da-ru buka, while “the mother of us two(excluding the
hearer)" is ratahi-ma-ru(ratahi- = mother, -ma- = mai = our[excluding the hearer], -ru = rua = two).“To you two" is expressed as lalai kimi-ru (lalai = to, kimi- = kimiu = you, -ru = rua = two). The plurality of nouns is generally
shown by the form of verbal pronouns, of
objective particles, or of possessive particles.
In example 8, the noun naturigi is singular, while in example 9, it is plural.
However, there are cases in which a plural
marker is placed in front of the noun in
question.Inexample 10, ira is a plural marker.
8 Naturigi mwa bano.
child he(or she)-neutral go
(A child goes.)
9 Naturigi ra-m bano.
child they-neutral go
(Children go.)
10 Ira naturigi ra-m bano.
plural markar child they-neutral
go
(Children go.)
With regard to aspect I will give
an explanation of the two Raga words vava and vuvuri. Vava is used to show that an action continues
and the sentence following vava describes the result of the action. That
is, it sometimes functions as a durative
marker and sometimes as a conjunction likeEnglish
“until"(Example 11). In this paper
I call it an action-continuing marker. Vuvuri is used to show that an action is completed
and the sentence following vuvuri describes an action that follows thereafter.
In this way it sometimes functions as a terminate
marker and sometimes as an adverb like English
“then"(Example 12). I call it an action-completing
marker.
11 Mwalanggelo nu lago vava
nu hivo an
tahi
young man he-past walk action-continuing
he-past go down at sea
marker
(A young man kept walking until he reached
the sea.)
12 Mwalanggelo nu loli-a vuvuri
nu vano.
young man he-past o it action-completing
marker he-past go
(A young man finished doing it; then he went.)
Negation is expressed by hav.....tehe(Example 13). Tehe sometimes takes the shorter
form te, so that negation is also expressed as hav.....te. Moreover,tehe is sometimes omitted, though
it is said that such an omission is incorrect.
I will translate hav into “not" and regard tehe as a negative marker.
13 Na-m hav gita-go tehe.
I-neutral not see you negative
marker
(I do not see you.)
In the Raga language the particle na is used to bring a certain word into focus
and I accordingly call this particle a focus
marker. Compare examples 14 and 15. In both
cases, nu, which is an actor-indicator,refers to niu. In 14 the subject niu is placed at the end of the sentence and
focus is placed on it by using the focus
marker na.
14 Nu halhala na niu.
it-past float focus marker coconut
(It is a coconut that floated.)
15 Niu nu halhala.
coconut it-past float
(A coconut floated.)
Be and gabe should be explained here. Be is basically a conjunction, as seen in
examples 16 and 17. In 16 it is used as a
complementizer. Example 18 also shows that be is used as a complementizer and in this
case it introduces direct narration. Be can be used in both direct and indirect
narration. When it introduces direct narration,
I call it a direct narration marker to indicate
the form of narration clearly. Example 19
shows that be is used also as a particle which identifies
the following word or phrase as a complement.
In this case I call be a complement marker.
16 Mwalanggelo nu hivo
an tahi be vi gagaru.
young man he-past go down
at sea so that he-future swim
(A young man went down to the sea so that
he might swim.)
17 Mwalanggelo nu gita-e be
nu tavuha.
young man he-past see it that it-past
good
(A young man found that it was good.)
18 Mwalanggelo mwa beve
be ue.
young man he-neutral say direct
narrative marker “Yes"
(A young man says ,“Yes.")
19 Ra-m uloi-nia be Tabua.
they-neutral call it complement
marker Ambrym
(They call it Ambrym.)
Gabe is basically used as a relative(Example 20,21;
as seen in the latter example, Raga has
no copula). Gabe is also used as a complementizer and as
a complement marker.
20 Vatu nu en goro
lulu gabe ra-n geli-a.
stone it-past lie down shutting
hole which they-past dig
it.
(A stone stopped up the hole which they dug.)
21 Go-m lol nggagarasi no-m
mwlanggelo gaituvwa gabe George.
you-neutral make cruel your
young fellow one who George
(You commit a folly to your only subordinate
who is George.)
There are no words in the language
for North, South, East and West. Moving to
the north is expressed by the verb hivo, the literal meaning of which is “to go
down", while moving to the south is
expressed by hae, the literal meaning of which is “to go
up". Moving to the east and moving to
the west are expressed by hivo , hae, or vano(= to go). Regardless of such direction(east
or west), hivo is used if the place the speaker is about
to go to is lower than the place he is now,and
hae if it is highter. Vano makes no reference to relative height.
REFERENCES
Tryon, D. T.
1972 The language of the New Hebrides:a
checklist and general survey. Pacific Linguistics A-35:43-84.
1973 Linguistic Subgrouping in the New
Hebrides:A Preliminary Approach. Oceanic Linguistics 12:303-351.
1978 The Languages of the New Hebrides:Internal
and External Relationships. Pacific Linguistics C-61:877-902.
Walsh, D. S.
1978 Tok Pisin Syntax - The East Austronesian
Factor.Pacific Linguistics A-54:185-197.
1982 Variation of Verb-Initial Consonants
in Some Eastern Oceanic Languages. Pacific Linguistics C-74:231-242.