A Grammar of South Efate

A Grammar of South Efate
Author: Nicholas Thieberger
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2006-07-31
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 082483061X

This book presents topics in the grammar of South Efate, an Oceanic language of Central Vanuatu as spoken in Erakor village on the outskirts of PortVila. It is one of the first such grammars to take seriously the provision of primary data for the verification of claims made in the analysis. The research is set in the context of increasing attention being paid to the state of the world’s smaller languages and their prospects for being spoken into the future. In addition to providing an outline of the grammar of the language, the author describes the process of developing an archivable textual corpus that is used to make example sentences citable and playable, using software (Audiamus) developed in the course of the research. An included DVD provides a dictionary and finderlist, a set of interlinearized example texts and elicited sentences, and playable media versions of most example sentences and of the example texts.

The Oceanic Languages

The Oceanic Languages
Author: John Lynch
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 942
Release: 2002
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 0700711287

The volume contains five background chapters: The Oceanic Languages, Sociolinguistic Background, Typological Overview, Proto-Oceanic and Internal Subgrouping. Part of 2 vol set. Author Ross from ANU.

Oceanic Explorations

Oceanic Explorations
Author: Stuart Bedford
Publisher: ANU E Press
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2007-11-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1921313331

Lapita comprises an archaeological horizon that is fundamental to the understanding of human colonisation and settlement of the Pacific as it is associated with the arrival of the common ancestors of the Polynesians and many Austronesian-speaking Melanesians more than 3000 years ago. While Lapita archaeology has captured the imagination and sustained the focus of archaeologists for more than 50 years, more recent discoveries have inspired renewed interpretations and assessments. Oceanic Explorations reports on a number of these latest discoveries and includes papers which reassess the Lapita phenomenon in light of this new data. They reflect on a broad range of interrelated themes including Lapita chronology, patterns of settlement, migration, interaction and exchange, ritual behaviour, sampling strategies and ceramic analyses, all of which relate to aspects highlighting both advances and continuing impediments associated with Lapita research.

The Lexicon of Proto-Oceanic

The Lexicon of Proto-Oceanic
Author: Malcolm Ross
Publisher: ANU E Press
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2007-03-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1921313196

This is the second in a series of five volumes on the lexicon of Proto Oceanic, the ancestor of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family. Each volume deals with a particular domain of culture and/or environment and consists of a collection of essays each of which presents and comments on lexical reconstructions of a particular semantic field within that domain. Volume 2 examines how Proto Oceanic speakers described their geophysical environment. An introductory chapter discusses linguistic and archaeological evidence that locates the Proto Oceanic language community in the Bismarck Archipelago in the late 2nd millennium BC. The next three chapters investigate terms used to denote inland, coastal, reef and open sea environments, and meteorological phenomena. A further chapter examines the lexicon for features of the heavens and navigational techniques associated with the stars. How Proto Oceanic speakers talked about their environment is also described in three further chapters which treat property terms for describing inanimate objects, locational and directional terms, and terms related to the expression of time.

Linguistics in Oceania, 2

Linguistics in Oceania, 2
Author: J. Donald Bowen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2019-05-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3111418812

No detailed description available for "Linguistics in Oceania, 2".

Archaeology and Language IV

Archaeology and Language IV
Author: Roger Blench
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134816243

Archaeology and Language IV examines a variety of pressing issues regarding linguistic and cultural change. It provides a challenging variety of case-studies which demonstrate how global patterns of language distribution and change can be interwoven to produce a rich historical narrative, and fuel a radical rethinking of the conventional discourse of linguistics within archaeology.

Bislama Reference Grammar

Bislama Reference Grammar
Author: Terry Crowley
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2004-05-31
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780824828806

Bislama is the national language of Vanuatu, the world's most linguistically diverse nation with at least 80 actively spoken Oceanic languages used by about 200,000 people. Bislama began as a plantation pidgin based on English in the nineteenth century, but it has since developed into a unique language with a grammar and vocabulary very different from English. It is one of very few national languages for which there is no readily available reference grammar. This book aims to fill this gap by providing an extensive account of the grammar of Bislama as it is used by ordinary Ni-Vanuatu. It does not, therefore, aim to describe any kind of artificial written norm but sets out to capture a range of different kinds of ways that Ni-Vanuatu will say things in various contexts, both written and spoken, formal and informal. The thrust of this volume is to show that Bislama has a grammar—an unfamiliar concept for those educated in Vanuatu. It also shows that Bislama is a language of considerable complexity, which will come as a surprise to many of its users, who have been taught to view their language as somehow "simple" and even "deficient."

Archaeology and Language II

Archaeology and Language II
Author: Roger Blench
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134828705

Second part of the sub-series in the One World Archaeology series. Archaeology and Language III due in 1998 Provides a new perspective by combining linguistics and archaeological approaches No other text covers this area Of interest to a wide range of disciplines