Lau language (Malaita)

Articles and numeral classifiers

Lau has a variety of articles distinguished by definiteness, number and shape. Ivens (1929) outlines the basic articles as follows:

• na: Denotes "the" and is used with nouns both in the singular and in the plural.
• si: Less definite, denoting "a, a part, a piece, any".
• taa, te, ke, kwe, fe and maa: Function as additional unit articles.

Sheppard (2012) revises this system by explicitly classifying articles by definiteness and number:

• na: Classified as the definite article.
• te: Classified as the singular indefinite article.
• ta: Classified as the plural indefinite article.

Sheppard also removes shape-based modifiers from the article category, placing them into a new class of numeral classifiers that follow cardinal numbers. These classifiers include:

• fe: Used for round or cyclical objects, including cyclical units of time (e.g., fe bubulu 'a star').
• mae: Used for entities extended in space and time.
• si: A partitive classifier used to indicate a portion of an entity or a diminutive reading.
• kwe: Used specifically with varieties of small fish and lobster.

Several particles serve plurality and personal marking:

• gi: Primarily marks plurality by following the noun. Sheppard reclassifies gi as a plural enclitic (=gi) that attaches to the element immediately preceding any postnominal particles within the noun phrase.
• ngwai: A prefix marking reciprocity of relationship.
• ote: Used for the plural of persons, often preceding the noun.
• a and ni: Personal articles used with proper names and some human nouns. a is for males and ni for females, a sex distinction Sheppard attributes to the sex of the referent.

Nouns

Nouns in Lau are categorised broadly by their ability to take possessive suffixes. Noun derivations and forms include:

Inalienable possession

Nouns denoting parts of the body (e.g., 'aba 'hand'), positional relationships (e.g., buri 'behind') and certain terms of relationship (e.g., haasi 'brother') take direct pronominal suffixes to express inalienable possession. For example, 'aba 'hand' takes the first-person singular suffix -gu to form 'aba-gu 'my hand'.

Verbal nouns

Derived from verbs using the terminations -a, -fa, -laa, -ta, -ngaa and -ma. For instance, mae 'to die' becomes maea 'sickness, death' and kwala 'to bear children' becomes kwalafa 'family'. Sheppard (2012) further clarifies that nouns derived with the nominalising enclitic =laa can function as the head of directly possessed noun phrases, using a short form =la.

Ordinals and kinship

The termination -na is attached to specific nouns expressing kinship and to cardinal numbers to derive ordinals.

Construct forms

Created by adding the genitive -e to the first of two adjacent nouns, sometimes triggering vowel contraction (e.g., abolo + 'ai > abole 'ai 'a log').

Pronouns and subject marking

Pronouns function independently as subjects, or are suffixed to verbs and prepositions as objects and to inalienable nouns as possessives. The longer independent forms (prefixed with i-) are used alongside their shorter counterparts for emphasis.

Lau also has dual forms (e.g., igoro, igamere) and a restricted plural denoted by a -lu suffix across plural forms (e.g., igolu, igamelu).

When expressing possession for alienable objects or food, an independent possessive marker is used (e.g., 'agu, 'amu, 'ana).

Sheppard (2012) substantially revises the grammatical framework laid out by Ivens (1929), reanalysing what were previously termed "temporal verbal particles" (such as ka and e) as a complex paradigm of subject markers. These markers index the person and number of the subject and fall into "activated" and "non-activated" paradigms, which track the current discourse prominence of referents and the sequential ordering of events.

Verbs

Almost any word in Lau can function as a verb when preceded by a verbal particle. The primary temporal particles are:

• ka: Signifies present or future time.
• ko: Denotes present or future time but occurs exclusively alongside the second-person singular pronoun 'o.
• ke: Generally denotes a future and is used strictly with the illative fi or negative si.

Sheppard (2012) supplements this by classifying verbs by valence into four groups:

Verbs also employ several morphological markers to express valency:

Transitivity

Verbs become explicitly transitive through the addition of a consonant + i suffix (e.g., -fi, -li, -mi, -ngi, -ri, -si) or simply -i. Alternatively, the termination -ai can be suffixed to verbs and the syllable ni may be added to form -(C)aini, where (C) is any of the optional consonants f, m, ng or t. Sheppard revises the morphological analysis of the long transitive suffixes; rather than being segmented as -tai followed by an independent pronoun nia (e.g., agwa-tai nia), Sheppard argues the underlying structure is the transitive suffix -(C)aini- followed by the bound object suffix -a (e.g., agwa-taini-a).

Causation

The prefix faa- derives causative verbs.

Reciprocity

The prefix kwai- marks reciprocals.

Ivens (1929) describes negation as expressed through the particles langi and si, with si also serving as the dehortative and negative imperative. Sheppard revises this structure, identifying three distinct negative elements:

• langi: The negative verb.
• =si: The negative enclitic.
• laa: The prohibitive particle.

Adjectives and adverbs

Adjectival concepts are typically expressed through words functioning as stative verbs, which generally occur postnominally. True adjectives, however, belong to a small closed class or carry specific morphological markers.

Ivens (1929) outlines adjectives formed through morphological derivation:

• Suffixes: Nouns and verbs can take the suffixes -'a and -la to become adjectives (e.g., rodo 'night' > rorodo'a 'belonging to darkness').
• Prefixes: Adjectival prefixes include 'a- (forming participles, as in luka 'to loose' > 'aluka 'loosened'), ma- (denoting condition, as in malingi 'spilt') and tata- (spontaneity, as in tatabulobulo 'head over heels').

Sheppard (2012) identifies a heterogeneous group of four true adjectives that are neither nouns nor verbs: gale/gaala ('small'), 'inite ('female head of family'), koo ('old, respected') and ukita ('pagan'). Three of these occur prenominally, while ukita occurs postnominally. The adjective for 'small' is notable for having distinct singular (gale) and plural (gaala) forms that occupy different structural slots within the noun phrase; the singular form follows a classifier, whereas the plural form precedes both classifiers and common definite articles.

Adverbs are categorised by place, time and manner, often deriving directly from nouns, verbs or adjectives (e.g., mai 'hither', taraina 'today', ilingia 'like/as').

Prepositions

Lau has an extensive prepositional system that covers location, motion, dative, causation and instrumental relations. Prepositions govern nouns by attaching anticipatory object suffixes in agreement with the complement object (e.g., faafi-a 'concerning it'). The locative preposition i generally precedes spatial adverbs and place names.

Sheppard (2012) classifies prepositions by how they cross-reference their objects:

Demonstratives

Sheppard (2012) identifies a demonstrative framework encoding spatial proximity and discourse status:

• Speaker proximate: naa.
• Addressee proximate: nae and nana.
• Distal: loko (singular) and loo (plural).
• Anaphoric: baa, used as a referent tracking device for shared or "given" information.

Numerals

Lau has a decimal (base-ten) counting system. In composition and quick counting, the initial e- prefix is commonly dropped from the cardinal root.

Ordinals are derived by attaching the termination -na to the cardinal, though exceptions exist where -la is suffixed directly (e.g., oula 'third', kwaula 'eighth'). Single digits are connected to multiples of ten using the conjunction mana (e.g., akwala mana fai 'fourteen').