Saliba language (Papua New Guinea)
Saliba is an Oceanic language spoken on the islets off the southeastern tip of Papua New Guinea. There are approximately 2,500 speakers of Saliba. Significant documentation of the language was undertaken by the Saliba-Logea documentation project, and hundreds of audio-video resources can be found in the project archive.
Culture
The most common occupation for the Saliba people is fishing. The four major villages are Sidudu, Sawasawaga, Logeakai and Logeapwata.Endangerment
The Saliba language is currently endangered. Currently there are only elders that speak it and a few young children who have learned in the early years of their life. Most of the people speak English because it is seen as the more prestigious language. This only further makes Saliba the minority language in the land.Phonology
The consonants of Saliba are /b/, /bw/, /p/, /pw/, /d/, /t/, /g/, /k/, /gw/, /kw/, /m/, /n/, //, //, / ' / and /r/. The vowels of Saliba are /i/, /e/, /a/, /u/ and /o/. The /w/ and /j/ are debatable if they are different phonemes because they are in complementary distribution with the sounds /u/ and /i/ respectively.| Consonants | Bilabial | Labiolabial | Alveolar | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal |
| Plosive | p, b | pʷ, bʷ | t, d | k, g | kʷ, gʷ | ʔ |
| Nasal | m | mʷ | n | |||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
| Approximant | l |
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
Listed above are the consonants for Saliba in IPA.
Orthography
In its orthography, Saliba uses Latin alphabets. The letters can also be upper case or lower case. All of Saliba's orthography is in the table below.| Phoneme | Orthography |
| i | i |
| e | e |
| a | a |
| o | o |
| u | u |
| p | p |
| pw | pw |
| b | b |
| bw | bw |
| t | t |
| d | d |
| k | k |
| kw | kw |
| g | g |
| gw | gw |
| ʔ | ' |
| s | s |
| h | h |
| l | l |
| w | w |
| j | y |
Syllables
The syllables in Saliba have three possible structures. They are V, CV, or CVN. All syllables in Saliba are enunciated the same. There is occasionally a slight stress on the syllable just before the last syllable. For example, in the word la.'pu.i, meaning hear, the syllable in the middle would be slightly stressed. In Saliba, all nouns, verbs, adjectives, and some adverbs are composed of at least two light syllables or one heavy syllable. On the other hand, words used mostly for grammatical functions, such as conjunctions, pronouns, particles, etc. can be made up of only a CV or just a V.Grammar
Verbs
All verbs in Saliba can be classified as either transitive or intransitive verbs on formal grounds. To convert from transitive to intransitive verbs the suffix -i or a suffix that looks like -ei is used, C being any consonant depending on the verb. The suffix -i can also be used to turn some nouns into transitive verbs. For example, nigwa, knife, becomes nigwa-i, cut with a knife. Another important formational affix for verbs is the causative prefix he-, e.g. kita, see becomes he-kita, show, or, cause to see. Something special about the verbs in Saliba is that the stems of two lexical verbs can combine to form one inflected verb. For example, in the verb phrase ye-kamposi-dobi, which means he jumped down, the verb kamposi-dobi is made up of kamposi and dobi. These two stems combined and formed one complex verb.Tense and aspect
Tense is not marked in Saliba verb phrases, but aspect is. When absolute time reference is needed, Saliba uses time words like lahi, yesterday, malaitom, tomorrow, or oblique phrases like malatomtom-yena, in the morning.Reduplication
Saliba uses reduplication for a few things. One function of reduplication is to convert certain action verbs into noun. For example, the word kuya means 'to sweep'. If kuya is reduplicated to kuyakuya it becomes 'broom'. Another example could be lau meaning 'go'. If that word is reduplicated to laulau it now means 'method' or 'way'. Another reason a verb would be reduplicated is the verb is being used as an attributive verb. An example of this would be in the sentence kai namwa-namwa-di. That sentence means 'good food'. Notice the namwa, meaning 'good', is reduplicated since it is a verb that is being used like an adjective. The last reason a verb would get reduplicated is in the imperfective aspect of an action verb. The reduplication is used to mark this occurrence in the sentence. Imperfective aspect is used to show habitual or progressive events. For example, in the sentence ...nige koya-i se pai-paisoa which means ' did not work in the garden'. The pai is reduplicated to mark that this is probably a habitual behavior.Adjectives
As far as adjectives go, in Saliba there appears to be no difference between verbs and adjectives. The only rule is, with the exception of some verbs, all verbs are duplicated when they are going to be used as adjectives.Nouns
Nouns in Saliba have four kinds of affixes that can be attached to them. The first one is a suffix that's used for possession. The next one is the plural suffix which is on nouns that refer to humans. Another affix is the locative suffix. The last affix is called a determiner.Noun phrases
Noun phrases are everything in a sentence that is not the verb. Noun phrases can be subjects, objects, predicates and parts of prepositional and post-positional phrases. In its simplest form, a noun phrase can be made out of just a noun and a determiner. For example, mwaedo, which in Saliba means an eel, is a simple noun phrase. A noun phrase is typically broken up into two parts, the nucleus and possibly multiple modifiers. Modifiers can include things like possessors and demonstratives, which would go before the head noun. The other types of modifiers, such as verbal modifiers and quantifiers would go after the head noun.One of the most important modifiers is the determiner. This modifier is usually attached to the last part of the noun phrase and gives a reference to the head noun in the noun phrase with regard to the rest of the sentence. However, noun phrases used as prepositional phrases do not have determiners.
Quantifiers such as cardinal numerals can go either before or after the adjective in a sentence. Ordinal numerals on the other hand, such as first, second, etc. behave like adjectives and go after the noun in Saliba.
Pronouns
The table holds all the different pronouns in Saliba. There are different rules for using each of them though. Starting with independent pronouns, when using these pronouns in a sentence they can and will most likely form noun phrases and will have a determiner. An example of a sentence using an independent pronoun could go as follows: Kai-wa ka matausi, which means 'We were scared'. In the next column are subject pronouns, these pronouns are used as the subject in a sentence hence their name. To be more precise one could say they are the subject of verbal clauses. As far as object pronouns go, according to linguists who studied Saliba these are only put on certain objects. One example using both types of pronouns could be Wawaya-o-wa kwa hanoi-di, which means 'Wake up the children'. Notice the kwa particle marking the subject and the -di particle marking possession. Another example could be Sina-gu yo tama-gu se hanoi-gai, meaning 'My mother and my father woke us up'. Again notice the two possessive pronouns -gu to mark 'my father and my mother' and also the se and -gai used to mark the subject and object respectively. On a bit of a side note, the subject pronouns ku and u are only used mostly for imperatives or events where the verb expressing it is not realized. For example, ku lau which means 'go!'. The last column, possessions, the rules for using the suffixes in a sentence are split up into alienable possessions and inalienable possessions. For alienable possessions, the possessive pronoun goes after one of the two possessive classifiers as shown in the table below.| yo- | English | ka- | English |
| yogu numa | my house | kagu puaka | my pig |
| yom numa | your house | kam puaka | your pig |
| yona numa | his/her house | kana puaka | his/her pig |
| yoda numa | our house | kada puaka | our pig |
| yoma numa | our house | kama puaka | our pig |
| yomi numa | your house | kami puaka | your pig |
| yodi numa | their house | kadi puaka | their pig |
For inalienable possessions the possessive classifiers yo- and ka- are not used. Instead, the possessive pronoun suffix goes after the possessed noun. If the inalienable noun is plural then the plural suffix will just go directly after the possessive suffix, as shown in the table below.
| Singular | English | Plural | English |
| natu-ga | my child | natu-gu-wao | my children |
| natu-m | your child | natu-m-wao | your children |
| natu-na | his/her child | natu-na-o | his/her children |
| natu-da-o | our child | natu-da-o | our children |
| natu-mai | our child | natu-mai-ao | our children |
| natu-mi | your child | natu-mi-ao | your children |
| natu-di | their child | natu-di-ao | their children |
Demonstratives
A demonstrative is a type of pronoun that points out a noun. In Saliba demonstratives, with the exception of meta, go before the head noun. Meta is the only one that goes after a head noun and its determiner. Saliba's demonstrative pronouns are as follows:| Demonstrative | English |
| teina | this |
| tenem | that |
| temeta, meta | that |
| wau | this |
Interrogative and indefinite pronouns
In Saliba most of the interrogative pronouns also function as indefinite pronouns. Interrogative pronouns are pronouns used when asking a question. Indefinite pronouns are pronouns used to mention any sort of general person, place, or thing. The interrogative/indefinite pronouns for Saliba are listed below.| Interrogative | English |
| haedi | where, anywhere |
| hisa | how many, some |
| kaiteya | who, somebody, anybody |
| kaiuyana | when |
| saha | what, something, anything |
| sahasaha | which one |
| idohagi | how |
| ye saha to | why |
All of the pronouns in this list except the last two are nouns. The last two happen to be verbs. An example of using one of these in a sentence would be haedi kwa lau? meaning 'where did you go?'.
Possession
As mentioned previously, Saliba has different rules for possessions depending on if they are alienable possessions or inalienable possessions. If a possession is inalienable then the possessed noun is just written with the correct possessive suffix directly following it. Such as sina-gu, meaning my mother. The -gu would be the possessive suffix. On the other hand, if it is an alienable possession then the possessive suffix directly follows one of the two possessive classifiers, yo- or ka-. Such as in yo-gu numa, 'my house', or ka-gu kai, 'my food'. In a sentence the person who possesses the possessed noun is treated as the subject and possessed noun is then the head of the predicate. They are written in such a way that there is nothing separating the subject from the head of the predicate. If someone wanted to negate the predicate, such as saying the do not have something, they would add the negation particle nige before the predicate phrase like so: Yau nige natu-gu, meaning 'I don't have a child'. In the following table are the things the people of Saliba find inalienable, alienable ka- constructions, and alienable yo- constructions.| Inalienable | Alienable | Alienable |
| body parts | food that is going to be eaten | something that's owned |
| parts of a thing | clothes | agent of intransitive and transitive actions |
| spatial relation | illnesses | kinship |
| container and content | involuntary events and those affected by them | |
| quantity and quantified items | kinship | |
| transitive actions and their patients | ||
| kinship |
One thing to note is that depending on the context, almost any noun can appear as alienable or inalienable. For example, one could say pou-na, meaning 'her egg', ka-na pou, meaning 'his/her egg', or yo-na pou, meaning 'his/her egg'. Now to clarify some of the categories a little more. Body parts are refer to things like hands, feet, etc. Parts of inanimate objects, include things such as the root of a coconut or the core of an apple. Spatial relation refers to space, such as the inside of a house. Container and content can mean things like a cup of water or a bowl of food, things like that. Quantity and quantified items are not referring to objects, but are rather more figurative. It is talking about age and time.
In terms of semantics, linguists can see three different types of relationships based on these constructions. Those relationships are relationships where the possessor and the possessee can part, relationships in which the possessor and the possessee cannot part but the possessor has complete control over the possessee, and a relationship in which the possessor and the possessee cannot part but the possessee has an effect on the possessor. An example of the last relationship would be a body part. Kinship is a bit strange because it appears in all three categories. Linguists do not know why this is. They can only assume that it is because of historical reasons. As far as kinship goes, some examples of inalienable kinships and alienable kinships are in the following table.
| Inalienable | English | Alienable | English |
| sina-na, tama-na | his/her mother, father | ka-gu bogao | my family |
| lou-gu | my sibling | ka-gu kaha | my sibling |
| tubu-gu | my grandparent, grandchild | yo-gu saeya | my sibling |
| iha-di | their brother-in-law | ka-gu tubu bagu-na | my ancestors |
| ka-gu tubu mulita | my descendants | ||
| yogu badalendia | my uncle | ||
| yogu golowa | my nephew/niece |
Numeral
Basic sentence structure
Saliba is a subject-object-verb language. Saliba follows the nominative-accusative pattern in its sentences. The basic clause in Saliba is composed of a verb with its subject and object with its affixes. Any noun phrases preceding or succeeding this core can be thought of as just an expansion of this clause. A simple sentence could be Kai-wa ka matausi palapa, which means 'We were really frightened'. Saliba also has nonverbal clauses such as nominal clauses, existential clauses, possessive clauses and clauses with other special predicates.An example of a nominal clause would be Kita taulauhekata, which means 'we are teachers'. The next nonverbal clause is the existential clause. These types of clauses will have the word temenai or a post-positional phrase to refer to a location. An example of this would be in the sentence: Temenai sikuli labui which means 'There are two schools'. Another nonverbal clause would be the possessive clause, which is a noun phrase that refers to a possessor and a possessee.
Conjunctions
The following table lists all the conjunctions in Saliba and when they will be used.| Conjunctions | English |
| yo | and |
| na | and |
| huyana | when |
| matawuwuna | because |
| usina | while |
| ena | if |