Mavea
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Mavea Island
Native speakers	34 (2008)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic North-Central Vanuatu North Vanuatu Espiritu Santo Mavea
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mkv
Glottolog	mafe1237
ELP	Mavea
Mav̋ea is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Mavea (also rendered Mav̋ea, Mafea or Mavia) is an Oceanic language spoken on Mavea Island in Vanuatu, off the eastern coast of Espiritu Santo. It belongs to the North–Central Vanuatu linkage of Southern Oceanic. The total population of the island is approximately 172, with only 34 fluent speakers of the Mavea language reported in 2008.^[1]

There are 94 languages in the North Vanuatu linkage, including Mavea. The closest linguistic relative to Mavea, sharing a little over 70% of cognates, is Tutuba. Following Tutuba, Aore, South Malok, Araki, and Tangoa are the next closest relatives.^[2]

Mavea is a moribund language and there are many factors as to why this is.

One factor would be the arrival and Christianization by the Seventh-day Adventist and Church of Christ missionaries in 1839. Only 16% of the population can speak Mavea. These native speakers of Mavea belong to Generation 1, 2, and 3^{[further explanation needed]} which ranges from the ages of 20–80 years old. Those born after 1980 ("Generation 4") are less fluent. Commonly, this generation is not taught the language, because the language is inactive and not used in any new domain.^[2]

Mavea is not used very commonly outside of the home; in particular, it is not used in school, which reduces the younger speakers' exposure to the language. Most speakers do not feel concerned with the possible loss of the Mavea language.^[2]

Bislama, the national lingua franca of Vanuatu, is used more frequently. This creole is the first language for many people in Vanuatu who live in the city. It is used for business, religious sacraments, politics, and is seen as a way to move upward in society.^[2]

Mavea has 15 consonants and 8 vowels.^[2]

Consonants^[3]

	Labial	Linguolabial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Velar
Nasal	m ⟨m⟩	n̼ ⟨m̋⟩		n ⟨n⟩		ŋ ⟨n⟩
Stop	p ⟨p⟩	t̼ ⟨p̋⟩	t ⟨t⟩		ɖ ⟨d⟩	k ⟨k⟩
Fricative	v ⟨v⟩	ð̼ ⟨v̋⟩		s ⟨s⟩
Trill				r ⟨r⟩
Approximant				l ⟨l⟩		w ⟨w⟩

Plosives in Mavea are not aspirated.^[4]

Vowels^[3]

	i	e	a	o	u
High	+				+
Back			+	+	+
Low			+
Rounded				+	+

Linguolabial consonants are represented using the corresponding labial consonant with a double acute accent on top: p̋ [t̼]; v̋ [ð̼]; m̋ [n̼].^[2] (This is a slight variation compared with the convention, shared by other Vanuatu languages, of transcribing linguolabials using two dots, respectively as p̈; v̈; m̈.)

The retroflex [ɖ] is represented in the orthography as d.

There are both free and bound pronouns. Free pronouns are common in many Pacific languages. These free pronouns do not change for gender, but shows numerical differences, including singular, plural, dual, or paucal.^[2]

For example:

• /mo/ = he/she/it (third person singular subject)
• He eats taro. = /mo-an pete/

Proper nouns includes personal names, vocatives, relational terms, and locatives. They do not proceed an article and can not be used with a determiner. To show gender distinction, males use the prefix /mol-/. For females, the prefix /vo-/ or /va-/ was added.^[2]

Similar to the proper nouns, there are both bound and free common nouns. Both can be used in an argument, be quantified with a marker, be modified with a determiner, be the head of a relative clause, and be questioned with "who" or "what". Bound common nouns are separated into nouns of kinship, body parts, bodily functions, and whole part relations. Also shows possessives.^[2]

Verbal predicates are marked with a subject agreement prefix. There are intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, ambitransitive, ditransitive, and auxiliary.

Intransitive verbs are used when the subject has no direct object receiving the action.^[2]

There are two kinds of adverbs: phrasal adverbs and sentential adverbs. Sententail adverbs take up the entire sentence and appear after or before the verb's core argument. For example: to show frequency, /te pong/ meaning "sometimes" is used as a sentential adverb.

Spatial adverbs are used to show the location of the speaker and the direction the speaker is speaking towards. For example: konaro means "here, at speaker's location." This is common in many Pacific languages.^[2]

Mavea shows partial reduplication in its grammar. Reduplication is used to show emphasis. For example: sua means "to paddle" and suosua means "to paddle intensely". Sometimes when using reduplication, the vowels can change. Usually the "a" changes to "o" or "e".^[2]

Adjectives can only be used as noun modifiers. There both adjectives as independent lexical items and also adjectives pulled from transitive verbs by using reduplication. For example: pulua is "paint" and "ima pulpulu" means "painted house".^[2]

There are seven prepositions in Mavea.

to/from	valu
straight	domdomi
for	lape
to/for	suri
around	dal
with	tuan
in/at	na

There are four attested demonstrative pronouns in Mavea: aro, nel(e), maro, and male.^[5] Aro and nel(e) can also function as demonstrative determiners, and aro specifically only rarely appears as a pronoun,^[5] as in:

Maro ('this one') is used to refer to something nearby the speaker, and has the plural form maror,^[5] which is formed by affixing the plural suffix -re:^[6]

Male ('that one') on the other hand is used when speaking of something that is distant to the speaker,^[5] both literally, as in

And metaphorically, in order to distance the speaker from the referent,^[6] as in

Malere is the plural form of male,^[5] and like maror is formed by affixing the plural -re:^[6]

Maro and male are both formed by combining the complementizer ma- and a locative adverbial; aro for the former, and ale for the latter.^[6]

In addition to demonstrative pronouns, Mavea also has three demonstrative determiners: nele, (a)ro, and nor(o),^[8] although of these only nor(o) is not attested as a pronoun in addition to its role as a demonstrative determiner.^[5]

Demonstrative Determiners^[8]

	Singular	Plural
this	nel(e)	neler(e)
this here	(a)ro	ror
this here now	nor(o)	noror

The three-way demonstrative system common to Oceanic Languages^[9] is not present in Mavean demonstrative determiners,^[8] occurring instead in the locative adverbs of the language.^[10] The demonstrative determiners of Mavea encode both spatial and temporal proximity to either the speaker,^[8] as in  

or to the discourse, as in

The plural forms neler(e), ror, and noror are formed by affixing what is likely a reduced form of the plural word re.^[11]

Nele, along with its plural form neler(e), is formed in part by the specific definite article le.^[11]

Nor(o), and its plural form noror, is actually made up in part by a cut down form of the third demonstrative determiner, (a)ro, while nele is not.^[11] Interestingly, the two demonstrative determiners which contain aro, that is nor(o) and (a)ro itself, are also the two demonstrative determiners which serve double duty as demonstrative pronouns,^[5] in addition to being used as locational adverbs, a function never assigned to nel(e)(re).^[11]

Additionally, one of the other demonstrative pronouns, maro, also has aro as one of its constituents.^[6]

Demonstrative determiners can refer to a location in both time and space, but the spatial location is often discourse-related, rather than speaker-related,^[11] as in the following example, where aro is used to refer anaphorically to a party (anana) that has previously been mentioned in the text:

This use is sometimes called the "tracking use".^[11] Ror, nor(o)(r), and nelere all also have anaphoric uses, as displayed in the following examples, where the noun phrase referents occurring prior to the demonstrative have each been mentioned previously:^[12]

The demonstrative determiners of Mavea follow the head noun when used adnominally, a pattern which is the norm in oceanic languages, though by no means universal.^[9] Examples of this include:

Locative adverbs are a class of sentential adverb, modifying entire sentences, and as such occur either subsequent to the verb's core argument,^[13] as shown in:

Or more rarely prior to the verb's core argument, as shown in:

There are two sets of locative adverbs in Mavea,^[13] all members of which serve as spatial deictics. There is the A-set, so named because all of its members begin with [a], and the K-set, so named because each of its members begins with [ko]. They form a six-way system based on proximity to the hearer, and to the speaker, as well as relative direction (up, down, or across)^[13]

Spatial adverbs^[10]

aro	~	kon(a)ro	'here, at speaker's location'
aine	~	konain(e)/koenine	'there, at hearer's location'
ale	~	konale	'there, away from both interlocutors, but closer to hearer than speaker'
atu	~	konatu	'over there, away from both interlocutors'
atisi(vo)	~	konatisi(vo)	'over there down, far away from both interlocutors'
atisa	~	konatisa	'over there up, far away from both interlocutors'
atiṽa	~	konatiṽa	'over there across, far away from both interlocutors'

Atisi(vo), atisa, and atiṽa, as well as their K-set equivalents konatisi(vo), konatisa, and konatiṽa, are likely derived from the form atu (or konatu for the K-set), compounded with a movement verb like si(vo) ('go down'), sa ('go up'), or ṽa ('go'):^[10]

'Soon after I felt something touching my leg here.'

Speakers can emphasise the distance in the forms atisi(vo), atisa, and atiṽa, as well as their K-set forms konatisi(vo), konatisa, and konatiṽa by producing them with a long [t], e.g.: [a.'t:i.si].^[10]

There is no easily discernible semantic difference between the A-set and the K-set, however some members of the A-set may also serve as demonstratives,^[15] as in:

which is not attested in any member of the K-set.

The spatial and temporal adverbs aro, aine, and kon(a)ro, as well as the demonstrative determiner nor(o), can be juxtaposed with a noun in order to form an adverbial predicate,^[7] as in

'The third one (is) here, the fourth one (is) here.'

Personal pronouns in Mavea do not inflect for case or gender, but do show number (singular, dual, paucal, plural). First person non-singular has an inclusive/exclusive distinction. Independent personal pronouns are not obligatory, but are used for emphasis, contrast or focus.^[16]

		Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
1st person	inclusive	na(o)	darua/ô	datol	(n)ida
	exclusive		kam̋arua/o	kam̋atol	kam̋am
2nd person		nno	kamruo/a	kamtol	kam̋im
3rd person		nna	rarua/o	ratol	nira

Bound pronouns are obligatory at the beginning of a predicate phrase. Only 1SG and 3SG inflect for mood.^[17]

Subject Agreement Markers^[18]

		Singular		Dual	Paucal	Plural
		Realis	Irrealis
1st person	inclusive	na-	ka-	dar-	datol-	da-
	exclusive			kir-	kitol-	ki-
2nd person		ko-	ko-	kir-	kitol-	ki-
3rd person		mo-	i-	rar-	ratol	ra-

Object Enclitics^[18]

		Singular	Plural
1st person	inclusive	-ao	(i)da
	exclusive
2nd person		-o
3rd person		-a	(i)ra

The Mavea counting system is very similar to other Proto Oceanic languages, especially numbers 1 through 5, and 10.^[2]

1. tea
2. rua
3. tol(u)
4. vat(i)
5. lima
6. marava
7. rave rua
8. rattol(u)
9. rappat(i)
10. anavul(u)

Mavea distinguishes direct and indirect possession. Direct possessive constructions nouns take a bound possessive clitic. On the other hand, indirect possession is expressed by the presence of a classifier to which a possessive clitic is suffixed.^[20]

Direct possession is expressed by a possessive clitic attached to the noun when the possessor is not expressed as a Noun Phrase (NP). Alternatively, if no suffix exists for the person and number of the possessor, the nouns are followed by an independent pronoun.^[20]

The semantic classes of nouns participating in direct possessive constructions, include, body parts, and bodily functions, kinship terms, articles of clothing, and household goods.^[20]

Table of Possessive Clitics

		Singular	Dual	Paucal/trial	Plural
1st person	inclusive	-ku	darua/o	datol	-(i)da
	exclusive		-mamrua/o	-mamtol	-mam
2nd person		-m	-mrua/o	-mtol	-mim
3rd person		-n(a)	-rarua/o	ratol	-(i)ra

A noun, which is directly possessed, takes a possessive clitic matching the possessor's features.^[21]

For example:

and

This third person singular possessive clitic, pronounced as [na], is suffixed to the noun 'Laloa' for 'saliva'.

If a full NP expresses the possessor, the possessee takes the construct suffix –n, or can be pronounces [na], although this construct suffix is a homophony of the possessive clitic –n and –na the distribution is different as displayed in the following examples;^[21]

Note that the case of Full NP, the possessee precedes the possessor

and

Possession is recursive, in the following example, the noun 'vulu' which is possessed by the noun 'vanatu' which in turn is possessed by John, therefore both nouns a suffixed with –[n].

Nouns in indirect possession constructions do not take a possessive clitic, they require a classifier to which a possessive clitic (or construct suffix) is attached.^[21]

There are six classifiers in Mavea:

1. a- 'to be eaten'
2. ma- 'to be drunk'
3. no- 'general possession, valuables'
4. pula- 'anima raised, vegetable planted'
5. sa- 'housing and land'
6. madoue- 'a dead man's possession'^[23]

classifier "a-" infers that the item is possessed is meant to be eaten

If the possessor is a full NP, the classifier is market with the construct -n

Summarised

Possession Type	Possessee	Possessor
Direct	N -n N CLF -n	Personal Noun Personal Noun
Indirect
Direct	N -n N CLF -n	Specific Specific
Indirect
Direct	N (+human) -n N (-human) -i	Non-specific
Indirect	N CLF -n	Non-specific

^[25]

Intonation is used to distinguish yes–no questions because there is no syntactic way to do so. There are also tag questions which uses the negative tag /te modere/ at the end. In English, /te modere/ means "or not".^[2]

Some monoclausal content questions include:

• ape = where
• ingese = when
• ise = who
• ivisa = how much/many
• matai = for what reason
• matan = why
• sa = what
• sava = which/what kind?
• se = which
• sur sa = about/for what

Sentential negation is expressed with the bound prefix /sopo/ and appears right after the subject agreement prefix.^[2] The order is subject → negation → verb.

Sometimes /sopo/ can be shorten to /po/.

When the subject agreement marker is absent, the bare negation marker jumps to the front.

To show the aspectual meaning "not yet", /lo/ is added to the negation marker /sopo/. This refers to events that have not happened yet but are likely to in the future. Added to the end of this form of negation is /pa/ which means "still" or "yet".

When combined with /me/ the negation changes into "not anymore, no more".

Equative clauses are shown by adding the negative marker /sopo/ to the subject marker for third person singular /mo-/. Mosopo meaning " it is/was/not."

Negative locational predicates are similar to equative clauses, by adding the locational marker /na/ to the equative clause /mosopo/.

• Guérin, Valérie (2011). A Grammar of Mavea: An Oceanic Language of Vanuatu (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications, No. 39. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i press. p. 424. ISBN 978-0-8248-3639-9. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
• Guérin, Valérie (2008). Discovering Mavea: Grammar, texts, and lexicon. Honolulu: Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics, University of Hawai'i press.
• Gunter, Senft (2004). Deixis and demonstratives in Oceanic languages. Australian National University, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. p. 179. ISBN 0-85883-551-7. OCLC 902361921.

• Presentation of Mavea by Valérie Guérin.
• Mavea resources at the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR)
• Mavea-English-Bislama Dictionary