lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Mele-Fila (Ifira-Mele) is a Polynesian language spoken in Mele and Ifira on the island of Efate in Vanuatu. In spite of their differences, Mele and Fila are two dialects of the same language and are mutually intelligible. French and English are also fairly common among the residents of Efate.[2]

Mele-Fila
Ifira-Mele
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Efate, Ifira Island
Native speakers	3,500 (2001)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Polynesian Futunic ? Mele-Fila
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mxe
Glottolog	mele1250

Mele-Fila is an everyday language for residents of Mele village and Fila Island. Mele village, with a population of 1,000, is located roughly 7 km north-west of Port Vila, the nation’s capital. Fila Island, with a population of 400, is located about 1.5km west of Vila.[2]

History

Based on archaeological evidence, it is understood that peoples speaking Austronesian languages originated on the island of Taiwan about 6000 years ago. Some of their descendants formed the Lapita civilisation, who sailed to Remote Oceania, including Vanuatu, roughly 3,200 years ago.[3]

The population of Mele-Fila belongs to the Polynesian outliers, who historically came from Central Polynesia (Tonga, Samoa) during the last two millennia.

Phonology

Mele-Fila consonants[4]^: 948

		Bilabial		Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Velar	Glottal
		Labio- velarized	plain
Nasal		mʷ	m	n		ŋ
Plosive		pʷ	p	t	t͡ɕ	k
Fricative	voiceless		f	s
	voiced		v
Trill				r
Approximant				l			h

This language is unusual among Polynesian languages for its phoneme /tɕ/. In the Fila dialect, /p/ and /m/ are not distinct from their labialized counterparts.[4]^: 948

Mele-Fila vowels[4]^: 949

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Mele vowels are similar to other Polynesian vowels as there are /i e a o u/ long and short. More than half of the words used in the language hail from Proto Polynesian language.[2] Stressed initial vowels were kept, while unstressed initial vowels were removed.

"Ex: English: then, Mele: gafuru, PPN: angafulu"

"Ex: English: yesterday, Mele: nanafi, PPN: ananafi" [2]

Articles and verbal particles with unstressed long vowels often have their unstressed vowel shortened:[2]

Ex: ruú ́́are - “The two houses”

Ex: ru pókasi - “the two pigs”

Consonant clusters (strings of consonants without a vowel) exist, but can only be formed from these three combinations:[4]^: 949

1. a sonorant and an obstruent
2. a fricative and a stop,
3. an obstruent and a nasal.

Word stress usually falls on the second-to-last syllable. Mele-Fila words usually contain at least three vowels.[4]^: 948 Similar to many Polynesian languages, this requires counting long vowels as two vowels.[2]

Mele-Fila has borrowed significantly from the Efate languages of Vanuatu.[4]^: 948 It also borrowed from English and French via Bislama, one of Vanuatu's national languages and creole language.[4]^: 948 This has caused its syllable structure to allow (C)VC consonants as well as (C)V.[4]^: 949 Consonants can be geminated(vocally lengthened), which indicates that a noun is plural.[4]^: 949

Syntax

Mele-Fila has a Subject – Verb – Object sentence order.[2]

Verbal particles

Below is a list of "verbal particles":[2]

• Ee – not of the future (past or current)
• Tee – intentional (could also mean immediate future)
• Too (roo in 3rd person) – future
• Kuu – indicates start or completion^{[clarification needed]} of an action/event
• Kaa – used when communicating to relatives below your social standing
• Kee (uncommon)- hypothetical
• Negation marker used post verb /kee/ (more common)
• Negation marker used pre-verb /see/ only used with ee or tee verbal particles
• Loose possession- used for actual ownership and some family relationships (possessed + n(a) + Possessor)
• Intimate possession – relation between parts/wholes and certain family relations
• Noki – frequent/habitual (always)

External links

• Materials on Mele-Fila are included in the open access Arthur Capell collections (AC1 and AC2) held by Paradisec.
• Biggs, Bruce (1975). Mele-Fila Vocabulary.
• Clark, Ross (1975). Mele Notes.
• History of Polynesian Languages
• Bedford, Stuart; Spriggs, Matthew. "Northern Vanuatu as a Pacific Crossroads: The Archaeology of Discovery, Interaction, and the Emergence of the "ethnographic Present"". Asian Perspectives. University of Hawai'i Press. 47 (1): 95–120. JSTOR 42928734.
• The Austronesian Languages By Robert Blust ()
• WALS Online
• The Commonwealth: http://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries/vanuatu/history
• Nations Online: https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/vanuatu.htm
• http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/vanuatu-population/

References

На других языках

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- [en] Mele-Fila language

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[fr] Mele-fila

Le mele-fila est une langue polynésienne, parlée au Vanuatu par 3 500 locuteurs — plus de deux mille dans un village Mele près d’Éfaté ; mille sur Ifira. La langue est aussi appelée fila-mele et ifara-mele. Il y a des différences significatives entre le mele et le fila. C’est une langue SVO. Contrairement à la plupart des autres langues au Vanuatu, le mele-fila est une langue polynésienne[1].

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[ru] Ифира-меле

Язык ифи́ра-ме́ле (меле-фила, имере, фила) — внешнеполинезийский язык, используемый на территории двух этнических анклавов среди преимущественно меланезийских поселений на территории провинции Шефа в тихоокеанской республике Вануату. Отдельного самоназвания у языка нет, поэтому в научной литературе принято обозначать его по названию двух деревень, где он распространён, или лишь по названию одной из них, причём зачастую используются разные формы этих названий.

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