The Mono-Alu language has been documented by Joel L. Fagan,[2] a researcher at the Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University. His publication A Grammatical Analysis of Mono-Alu (Bougainville Straits, Solomon Islands)[3] is the first and only translation and analysis of the Mono-Alu language to date.
The Alu alphabet has 19 letters: A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, and V.
R was traditionally used more D, but D is used more often in new foreign words or names that have been introduced into the language. It is also used to represent the allophonic variant [d] of the phoneme /ɾ/.
The letter V is used to represent the allophonic variant [v] of the phoneme /b/.
The letter H is sometimes replaced by F.
Length distinctions of vowels and nasals are not represented in the current orthography.
Although not in the alphabet, the letters J and Z can be used to represent the marginal phonemes /d͡ʒ/ and /z/, respectively, which only occur in loanwords and appear to be phonologically integrated.
/i/ has the allophone [iʲ] and occurs before other vowels (e.g. [sɐpɐiʲɐ] ‘tuber species’, [mɐniʲɔkɔ] ‘papaya’).
/u/ can occur as [ʊ] in casual speech when the vowel is short, and does not occur in word-final open syllables. The allophone [uʷ] occurs before /i/ and /ɛ/ (e.g. [kuʷisɐ] ‘basket’, [suʷɛlɛ] ‘sleep’).
/ɔ/ has the allophonic variant [ɔʷ] and it occurs in the exclamation [kɔʷɛ] and is the only instance where this allophone is attested. Elsewhere, it is pronounced as [ɔ].
/ɐ/ and /ɛ/ do not have allophones.
Syllable structure
The syllable structure can be either (C)V1(V2)(N) or (ʔ)N, where C can be any consonant (including nasals), V can be any vowel, and N can be either /n/ or /ŋ/. The sequence V1V2 represents a long vowel if both Vs are the same phoneme, or a diphthong if they are different. In the syllable pattern (ʔ)N, N is a nasal syllabic nucleus (e.g. [ŋ̩.kɐ] ‘mother’, [ŋ̩.kɔ.tɔ] ‘take, hold’).
In both the coda and nucleic positions, N is always realized as velar [ŋ] before /k/, /g/ /ʔ/, and /h/.[4]
Numerals
The number system of Mono-Alu is very similar to other Austronesian languages.[5] For example, Mono-Alu shares the words for the numbers 'two' (elua) and 'five' (lima) with the Hawaiian language. A word for 'zero' (menna) exists in the language and also holds the meaning of 'nothing.' Fagan identified the numbers from one to ten thousand in Mono-Alu.
Mono-Alu, like many other Austronesian languages, uses two separate pronouns for the first-person plural to express clusivity; that is, one first-person plural pronoun is inclusive (including the listener), and the other is exclusive (not including the listener). Mono-Alu does not have third-person pronouns. Fagan translated pronouns and their possessives.
added to the first of two names gives the meaning 'and', alternate form m
ua
denotes addition, 'and', 'with'
-a
'of', especially before -ang, alternate forms an, ang, aan
afa-
'what?'
-ata
often found after verbs and other words, alternate forms eta, ita, ota, uta
ga
particle, most often after the first word in a sentence, untranslatable; 'so, therefore' at the beginning of a sentence, also used with pronoun forms to emphasise them: gafa, gami, gai, gaina, gang, etc.
^ abcMeier, Sabrina C. (2020). Topics in the Grammar of Mono-Alu (Oceanic). University of Newcastle.
^Lincoln, Forster, Peter, Hilary (2001). Letters written in Mono-Alu language of Western District, Solomon Islands to Hilary Forster of N.Z.; Mono-Alu word list by Hilary Forster of N.Z. and a teacher from Shortland Islands, Solomon Islands. Shortlands, Solomon Islands.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Stolz, Thomas (1996). Some Instruments Are Really Good Companions - Some Are Not. On Syncretism and the Typology of Instrumentals and Comitatives. pp. Theoretical Linguistics 23. 113–200.
