Palauan Reference Grammar · 2019-06-06 · Contents Contents Dedication viii Preface xix...

Palauan Reference GrammarPalauanReferenceGrammar

PALI LANGUAGE TEXTS: MICRONESIA

Social Sciences and Linguistics InstituteUniversity of Hawaii

Donald M. ToppingEditor

ii

Palauan ReferenceGrammar

LEWIS S. JOSEPHSWith the assistance of

MASA-AKI EMESIOCHELMASAHARU TMODRANG

HELEN WILSON

The University Press of HawaiiHONOLULU

Open Access edition funded by the NationalEndowment for the Humanities / Andrew W.Mellon Foundation Humanities Open BookProgram.

Licensed under the terms of Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 In-

ternational (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits readers to freelydownload and share the work in print or electronic format fornon-commercial purposes, so long as credit is given to theauthor. Derivative works and commercial uses require per-mission from the publisher. For details, seehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The Cre-ative Commons license described above does not apply to anymaterial that is separately copyrighted.

Open Access ISBNs:9780824879068 (PDF)9780824879075 (EPUB)This version created: 20 May, 2019

Please visit www.hawaiiopen.org for more Open Access worksfrom University of Hawai‘i Press.

The research reported herein was partially supported by GrantNo. GS-33639 from the National Science Foundation and by theGovernment of the Trust Territory of the Pacific. Publication ofthe finished book was financed by the Trust Territory Govern-ment. Financial support for Masa-aki Emesiochel, MasaharuTmodrang, and Dr. Helen Wilson was made possible through theabovementioned National Science Foundation Grant, the TrustTerritory Government, and the Culture Learning Institute of the

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/http://www.hawaiiopen.org

East-West Center at the University of Hawaii.

Copyright© 1975 by The University Press of HawaiiAll rights reserved

To my fatherAnd to Palau for the Palauans

ContentsContents

Dedication viiiPreface xix

1 Sounds and Spelling of Palauan 11.1. Sound System of Palauan 11.2. Significant Sounds (Phonemes) of Palauan 21.3. The Consonants of Palauan 31.3.1. Stops 41.3.2. Fricative 121.3.3. Nasals 121.3.4. Liquids 161.3.4.1. The Sequences ll and rr 17

1.3.5. Syllabic Consonants 171.4. The Vowels of Palauan 181.4.1. High Vowels i and u 191.4.2. Mid Vowels e, ȩ, and o 201.4.3. Low Vowel a 221.4.4. The Vowel ȩ and the Process of Vowel

Reduction 221.4.5. Other Occurrences of Schwa 241.4.6. Long Vowels 251.4.7. Vowel Clusters 26

1.5. Further Rules of Palauan Spelling 291.6. Suggestions for Further Study 36

2 Palauan Nouns 382.1. Grammatical System of Palauan 382.2. Identification of Palauan Nouns 392.3. Distribution of Palauan Nouns 402.4. Pronouns 442.5. Plurals 472.6. The Palauan Word a 502.7. Specific vs. Non-specific Object Nouns 52

3 Noun Possession 593.1. Possessor Suffixes and Possessed Nouns 59

ix

3.2. Person and Number 603.3. Four Sets of Possessor Suffixes 613.4. Vowel Reduction 633.4.1. Vowel Deletion 653.4.2. Shortening of Long Vowels 663.4.3. Shortening of Vowel Clusters 673.4.3.1. Technical Discussion of Vowel Cluster

Shortening 693.4.4. Possessed Nouns With -ng- 703.4.5. Alternation Between -ng and -l- 70

3.5. Obligatorily Possessed Nouns 713.6. Palauan Noun Phrases 733.7. Noun Phrases of Possession vs. Noun Phrases

of Characterization 773.8. Unpossessible Nouns 783.9. Noun Phrases of Characterization: Further

Examples 803.10. Appositional Structures 823.11. Some Special Possessed Nouns 833.12. Summary of Palauan Noun Phrases 84

4 Palauan Pronouns 864.1. Independent Pronouns and Affix Pronouns 864.2. Non-emphatic vs. Emphatic Subjects 874.3. Use of Emphatic Pronouns Following ȩr 934.4. Emphatic Pronouns in Coordinate Noun

Phrases 944.5. Emphatic Pronouns Preceded by di 964.6. Other Uses of Emphatic Pronouns 964.7. Non-emphatic Pronouns as Pronominal

Traces 974.8. Pronominalization 1024.9. Object Pronouns and Perfective Verbs 1054.9.1. The Zero (Ø) Object Pronoun 1074.9.2. Further Examples of Perfective Verb Forms 1084.9.3. Verbs with Limited Perfective Forms 1104.9.4. Variant Forms of the Object Pronouns 112

4.10. Hypothetical Pronouns 115

Contents

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4.10.1. Hypothetical Pronouns with ImperfectiveVerbs 116

4.10.2. Hypothetical Pronouns as Agents 1174.10.3. Hypothetical Pronouns with the Past Tense 1184.10.4. Reduced Variants of the Hypothetical

Pronouns 1194.10.5. Distribution of the Reduced Variants 1204.10.6. Hypothetical Forms of Complex Verb

Phrases 1224.10.7. Imperative Verb Forms 1234.10.8. Propositive Verb Forms 1244.10.9. Summary of Hypothetical Pronouns 125

5 Palauan Verbs 1265.1. Identification of Palauan Verbs 1265.1.1. Action Verbs: Transitive and Intransitive 1265.1.2. State Verbs 1305.1.3. Further Differences Between Action Verbs and

State Verbs 1325.2. Distribution of Palauan Verbs 1355.3. Tense 1395.3.1. Present Tense 1395.3.2. Past Tense 1405.3.2.1. The Auxiliary mla 146

5.3.3. Future Tense 1475.4. The Verb Marker and Ergative Verb Forms 1485.5. Imperfective vs. Perfective Verb Forms 1555.6. Active and Passive Sentences 1615.7. Further Types of Verbs 1625.8. Summary of Palauan Verbs 164

6 The Verb Marker and Perfective Verb Forms 1656.1. The Verb Marker Prefixes 1656.1.1. The Prefix ou- 167

6.2. The Infixed Verb Marker and Metathesis 1696.2.1. Absence of the Verb Marker in Hypothetical Verb

Forms 1726.3. Selected List of Perfective Verb Forms 1746.3.1. Metathesis in Perfective Verb Forms 1766.3.2. The Metathesized Verb Marker and Vowel

Blending 1796.3.3. Deletion of the Metathesized Verb Marker 183

Contents

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6.4. Vowel Reduction and Vowel Deletion inPerfective Verb Forms 185

6.5. Additional Remarks on Perfective VerbForms 187

6.6. Perfective Forms of Transitive Verbs in o- 1896.7. Hypothetical Forms of Perfective Verbs 191

7 State Verbs 1937.1. Internal Structure of State Verbs 1937.2. State Verbs with Plural Subjects 1957.3. Verbs with mle and -il- in the Past 1977.4. Transitive State Verbs 1987.5. State Verbs with bȩ- 2007.6. The Prefixes bȩkȩ- and sȩkȩ- 2017.6.1. State Verbs with bȩkȩ- Denoting Smells 203

7.7. Resulting State Verbs 2047.8. Anticipating State Verbs 2067.8.1. The Anticipating State Suffix -all 2107.8.2. Resulting and Anticipating State Verbs as

Nouns 2107.9. Transitive Verbs Derived from State Verbs 211

8 Noun Derivation 2138.1. Internal Structure of Palauan Nouns 2138.2. State Verbs Functioning as Nouns 2148.3. Nouns Derived with -(ȩ)l - from Intransitive

Verbs 2178.4. Nouns Derived from Reciprocal Verbs 2198.5. Abstract Nouns Derived with kl(ȩ)- 2208.6. Instrument and Action Nouns with o- 2228.7. Nouns Derived with ul(ȩ)- 224

9 Causative Verbs 2279.1. Meaning and Use of Causative Verbs 2279.2. Forms of the Causative Prefix 2299.2.1. The Prefix omȩ(k)- 2309.2.1.1. Technical Discussion of the Prefix omȩ(k)- 2319.2.1.2. Additional Types of Causative Verbs with

omȩ(k)- 2349.2.1.3. Sample Sentences with omȩ(k)-Causatives 235

9.2.2. The Prefix ol(ȩ)- 236

Contents

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9.2.2.1. Technical Discussion of the Prefix ol(ȩ)- 2389.2.2.2. Additional Types of Causative Verbs with ol(ȩ)-

2399.2.2.3. Sample Sentences with ol(ȩ)- Causatives 240

9.3. Verb Stems Allowing Two Causatives 2409.4. Perfective Forms of Causative Verbs 2429.5. Ergative Forms of Causative Verbs 2459.6. Hypothetical Forms of Causative Verbs 246

10 Reciprocal Verbs 24810.1. Meaning and Use of Reciprocal Verbs 24810.2. Forms of the Reciprocal Prefix 25010.2.1. Reciprocal Verbs Related to Causative Verbs 25010.2.2. Reciprocal Verbs Related to Verbs in ou- 25210.2.3. Reciprocal Verbs Derived from Transitive Verb

Stems 25310.2.4. The Reciprocal Prefix cha- 255

10.3. Sample Sentences with Reciprocal Verbs 25610.4. Extended Functions of the Reciprocal

Prefix 25811 Reduplication and Further Verb Affixation 261

11.1. Types of Verb Derivation 26111.1.1. Previous Examples of Reduplication 262

11.2. Reduplication of Simple State Verbs 26211.2.1. Reduplication of Possessed Nouns 263

11.3. Reduplication of State Verbs in mȩ- 26411.4. Reduplication of Derived State Verbs 26511.5. Complex Patterns of Reduplication 26611.6. Reduplication of Intransitive Action Verbs 26811.7. Reduplication of Transitive Action Verbs 26911.8. Reduplication of Verbs in ou- and o- 27511.9. Reduplication of Causative Verbs 27611.10. Reduplication of Reciprocal Verbs 27711.11. “Fossilized” Reduplication 27711.12. The Predictive and Inchoative Suffixes 27811.12.1. Predictive and Inchoative Forms of Intransitive

Action Verbs 27911.12.2. Predictive and Inchoative Forms of Ergative

Verbs 281

Contents

xiii

11.12.3. Predictive and Inchoative Forms ofImperfective Verbs 282

11.12.4. Inchoative Forms of State Verbs 28311.12.5. Predictive and Inchoative Forms of mo 28511.12.6. The Predictive Word ku 286

12 Imperfective vs. Perfective Verbs 28812.1. Meaning of Imperfective vs. Perfective Verb

Forms 28812.2. Imperfective vs. Perfective Verb Forms in

Various Tenses 29012.3. Further Examples of Contrast Between

Imperfective and Perfective Verb Forms 29412.4. Imperfective vs. Perfective Verb Forms and

Specific Objects 29612.5. Contextual Restrictions on the Use of

Imperfective vs. Perfective Verb Forms 29712.6. The Transitive Verb omes 30012.7. The Transitive Verb orrengȩs 302

13 Directional Verbs 30413.1. The Three Directional Verbs of Palauan 30413.2. Meaning and Use of the Directional Verbs 30413.3. Directional Verbs Followed by Action Verbs 30813.4. The Directional Verbs and Future Time 30913.5. The Directional Verb mo and Change of State

31113.5.1. Change of State Expressions with Noun

Phrases 31413.6. Special Verbal Expressions with mo 314

14 Relational Phrases 31614.1. Distribution and Function of Relational

Phrases 31614.2. Locational Phrases 31814.2.1. Locational Phrases with Nouns Describing

Spatial Relationships 32014.2.2. Additional Examples of Nouns Describing

Spatial Relationships 32514.3. Directional Phrases 32614.3.1. Further Types of Directional Phrases 329

14.4. Source Phrases 330

Contents

xiv

14.4.1. Further Types of Source Phrases 33114.5. Cause Phrases 33214.6. Temporal Phrases 33314.7. Sentences with More than One Relational

Phrase 33814.8. Relational Phrases Used to Express

Comparison 34014.9. Further Types of Palauan Relational

Phrases 34115 Dependent Clauses 344

15.1. Characteristics of Dependent Clauses 34415.2. Purpose Clauses 34615.2.1. Purpose Clauses Containing Directional

Verbs 34715.2.2. Purpose Clauses Following Nouns 349

15.3. Instrument Clauses 35015.4. Purpose and Instrument Clauses with Past

Tense Verb Forms 35115.5. Means of Transportation Clauses 35315.6. Accompaniment Clauses 35515.7. Specifying Clauses 35715.7.1. Specifying Clauses Containing Directional

Verbs 35915.7.2. Specifying Clauses Following lmuut 36115.7.3. Specifying Clauses Following dmak 36215.7.4. Specifying Clauses Containing the Perfective

Forms of mȩrkui 36415.7.4.1. Regional Variation in the Use of ȩl rokir and

ȩl rokui 36715.7.5. Specifying Clauses Designating Periods of

Time 36815.7.6. Specifying Clauses in Sentences Designating

Manner 36915.7.7. Specifying Clauses Following Special Verbs 371

16 Object Clauses 37316.1. Structure and Function of Object Clauses 37316.2. Object Clauses Following omuchȩl and mo

mȩrek 37516.3. Object Clauses Following Transitive State

Verbs 379

Contents

xv

16.4. Further Examples of Object Clauses 38016.5. Sentences with Two Objects 381

17 Processes of Sentence Formation: Subject Shifting andPreposing of Possessor 384

17.1. Four Special Possessed Nouns 38417.2. Subject Shifting 38617.3. Preposing of Possessor 39017.4. Subject Shifting and Preposing of Possessor

with Expressions Containing reng 39417.5. Preposing in Reciprocal Sentences 39717.6. Summary of Processes Affecting Palauan Word

Order 40017.7. Dependent Clauses Resulting from Subject

Shifting 40217.8. Subject Shifting and Derived Action Nouns 40617.8.1. Possessed Forms of Derived Action Nouns 409

17.9. Soal and chȩtil Followed by Hypothetical VerbForms 410

17.10. Further Discussion of the Four SpecialPossessed Nouns 413

18 Negation 41918.1. Affirmative vs. Negative Sentences 41918.2. Affirmative vs. Negative Expressions of

Existence 42018.2.1. Subject Shifting in Affirmative and Negative

Expressions of Existence 42418.3. The Negative Verb diak 42718.4. Hypothetical Verb Forms Following diak 43018.5. Further Examples of Negative Sentences 43418.6. Equational Sentences: Affirmative and

Negative 43718.7. The Negative Expression di kea 44018.8. Negative Verbs as Answers to Questions 441

19 Uses of Hypothetical Verb Forms 44519.1. Conditional Sentences 44519.1.1. Conditions in the Present or Future 44619.1.2. Conditions in the Past 44719.1.3. Conditional Clauses Containing diak 448

Contents

xvi

19.2. Permutation of Conditional and ConsequentialClauses 449

19.3. Further Types of Conditional Clauses 45019.4. Additional Examples of Conditional

Clauses 45519.5. Imperative Verb Forms 45819.6. Propositive Verb Forms 46419.7. Passive Sentences 46519.7.1. Further Examples of Passive Sentences 47019.7.2. Passive Sentences Containing Complex Verb

Phrases 47219.7.3. Passive Sentences and Relational Phrases 47319.7.4. Negative and Conditional Passive Sentences 474

20 Questions 47520.1. Yes-No Questions 47520.2. The Question Word tȩcha 48020.2.1. Further Types of Questions with tȩcha 484

20.3. The Question Word ngara 48620.3.1. Further Types of Questions with ngara 490

20.4. The Question Word tela 49320.5. The Question Word ker 49520.6. The Question Word oingara 49720.7. The Special Question Word mȩkȩra 49820.8. Sentences with Two Question Words 499

21 Direct and Indirect Quotation 50021.1. Direct vs. Indirect Quotation 50021.2. Indirect Quotation and Verbs of

Communication and Mental Activity 50221.3. Direct and Indirect Quotation of

Commands 50421.4. Direct and Indirect Quotation of Questions 50621.5. The Expressions ȩl kmo and ȩl ua se 51021.6. Indirect Quotation Following Nouns of

Communication 51122 Reason Clauses, Result Clauses, and Time Clauses 512

22.1. Reason and Result Clauses 51222.1.1. Special Types of Result Clauses 515

22.2. Time Clauses 520

Contents

xvii

22.2.1. Before and After 52322.2.2. Movement of Time Clauses and Time Words 524

23 Relative Clauses 52723.1. Function of Relative Clauses 52723.2. Derivation of Relative Clauses 52923.3. Passive Sentences as Relative Clauses 53023.4. Equational Sentences as Relative Clauses 53523.5. Relative Clauses Containing State Verbs 53723.6. Relative Clauses Following chad and klalo 538

24 Modifiers 54024.1. State Verbs as Modifiers 54024.2. Other Verbs and Nouns as Modifiers 54324.3. Demonstratives 54524.4. Numbers 55124.4.1. Numbers Above 20 55524.4.2. Minor Number Sets 55724.4.3. Use of Number Words in Sentences 55824.4.4. Ordinal Numbers 55924.4.4.1. Ordinal Numbers Followed by Specifying

Clauses 56024.5. Expressions with Two or More Modifiers 56224.6. Qualifying Words 563

25 The Connecting Words Mȩ and E 56525.1. Review of Complex Sentences with mȩ and e

56525.2. Further Uses of the Connecting Word mȩ 56825.2.1. The Expression mȩ a lȩchub 569

25.3. Further Uses of the Connecting Word e 57025.3.1. The Expression e ng di 574

25.4. Coordinate Noun Phrases 57525.4.1. Coordinate Noun Phrases with mȩ a lȩchub 579

Notes 580Appendix: Guide to Phonetic Symbols Used in This

Textbook 635Glossary of Terms 637Bibliography 660

Contents

xviii

PrefacePreface

The main purpose of this book is to offer a comprehensivedescription of the Palauan language which will be of use tospeakers of Palauan and to linguists alike. I have attempted tomake my explanations as simple and clear as possible, in spiteof the fact that the data to be analyzed are often discourag-ingly complex. To achieve this, I have taken special pains todefine difficult concepts at length, and to illustrate these con-cepts with copious examples. I have presented the material insuch a way that there is a gradual build-up in complexity, withlater analyses depending on, or assuming an understanding of,earlier ones. If the general reader masters the material as hegoes along, he should have little difficulty in grasping someof the later, more difficult analyses. Such analyses are, un-fortunately, necessary because the structures to be explainedare themselves so complex; in many cases, if I had chosento present an oversimplified, watered-down description of thedata, I would not have been able to capture some of the es-sential phonological and grammatical principles that uniquelycharacterize the Palauan language.

After an introduction to the sounds and spelling of Palauanin chapter 1, I go on to describe some of the basic Palauan partsof speech (nouns and verbs) in chapters 2-5. In chapters 6-11, Idescribe the salient features of Palauan morphology (i.e., wordformation) and explain the many complex rules which interactwith each other when verbs and nouns are derived. Finally, inchapters 12-25, I talk about the major syntactic constructionsand grammatical processes of Palauan. Although the great ma-jority of discussions are intended for the general reader, in a fewplaces I have included discussions or remarks of a highly tech-nical nature which are meant for readers with some degree oflinguistic training. When these discussions appear as a sectionof the text or as a note, the number introducing the sectionor the note has been preceded with an asterisk (*). Generalreaders can disregard such materials without losing the train ofthe discussion. As they proceed through the text, all readers willfind the extensive cross-referencing of considerable assistance;

xix

as further aids in using the book, a list of phonetic and ortho-graphic symbols, a glossary of linguistic terms, a brief bibliog-raphy, and an index have also been appended.

I am grateful to Dr. Helen Wilson, who offered me invaluableassistance in conducting interviews and writing preliminaryversions of some of the chapters. If it had not been for the un-flagging interest of my two principal informants, Masa-aki Eme-siochel and Masaharu Tmodrang, in this research and for theirstrong determination to make a description of the Palauan lan-guage available to the Palauan people, this book would neverhave been possible. I thank them profoundly for their patienceand cooperation. I am also indebted to the many people inPalau, in particular to the teachers and administrators of thePalau High School, who helped me in numerous ways to bringthis research to completion. Finally, I would like to express mysincerest gratitude to Dr. Donald Topping, Director of the SocialSciences and Linguistics Institute of the University of Hawaii,who provided the crucial initial inspiration for this volume andwho painstakingly reviewed the manuscripts, offering innu-merable suggestions for improving organization, style, andcontent; and to Dawn Reid, who gave so much of her time typingthe original drafts.

Preface

xx

1 Sounds and Spelling ofPalauan

1SoundsandSpellingofPalauan

1.1. SOUND SYSTEM OF PALAUANWhen a linguist attempts to present a description of a language,he usually finds it desirable to treat the sound system ofthe language separately from the grammatical system. Eventhough this division may seem arbitrary or artificial (for howcan we have the words, phrases, and sentences of a languagewithout sound, and vice versa?), we are nevertheless going toexamine the sound system of Palauan before proceeding to a de-scription of the grammatical system.

Every language of the world uses its own particular set ofsounds to construct words. No two languages have preciselythe same set of sounds or the same number of sounds. Eventhough the human vocal apparatus is capable of producing anextremely large number and variety of sounds, speakers of dif-ferent languages actually use only a relatively small numberof such possible sounds when communicating in speech. TheHawaiian language, for example, uses only thirteen distinctivesounds, perhaps the smallest number among world languages;closer to the average are Chamorro, with twenty-five distinctivesounds, and English, with approximately thirty. When a humanbeing learns his native language, he becomes so used to theparticular sounds of it that he may have great difficulty in pro-nouncing the sounds of some other language correctly. As aresult of such imperfect pronunciation, he is said to speak thesecond language with a “foreign accent.”

In addition to having a limited number of sounds, every lan-guage organizes its sounds into a system which is unique to thatlanguage. This systematic organization involves such things asthe positions and combinations in which the various sounds canoccur, the frequency with which certain sounds occur, the varia-tions of pronunciation which particular sounds undergo, and soforth. In this chapter we will take up some of the more out-standing features of the sound system of Palauan.

1

1.2. SIGNIFICANT SOUNDS (PHONEMES) OFPALAUAN

When a linguist studies the sound system of a language, hisprimary concern is to discover the significant sounds, orphonemes. In order to determine what the significant soundsof the language are, the linguist tries to find cases in which thesubstitution of one sound for another results in a different wordand, consequently, a change of meaning. For example, if we takethe Palauan word tub ‘spit’ and substitute a d for the first soundt, we will get dub, which is a completely different word meaning‘dynamite’. On the basis of this pair of words—tub ‘spit’ and dub‘dynamite’—we can conclude that t and d are significant sounds,or phonemes, of Palauan. To use another term common amonglinguists, we can say that t and d are contrastive sounds inPalauan because they contrast with each other (or are in oppo-sition to each other) in otherwise identical environments. Lin-guists use the term ‘environment’ in a technical sense to referto the sound or sounds which are adjacent to or close to someother sound. For the pair of words under discussion, both t andd contrast in the same environment, because both of them arefollowed by ub.

The pair of words tub ‘spit’ and dub ‘dynamite’ can becalled a minimal pair because the difference between them isminimal—i.e., determined by the substitution of a single sound.Some other minimal pairs in Palauan include

(1) blai ‘house’ — mlai ‘canoe’chad ‘person’ — char ‘price’kar ‘medicine’ — ker ‘question’tet ‘purse’ — tut ‘breast’

What are the contrastive sounds in each of the above minimalpairs? Why don’t the pairs of words brer ‘raft’—brak ‘taro’ ordaob ‘ocean’—taod ‘fork’ qualify as minimal pairs?

There are also differences in the individual sounds of a lan-guage which are non-contrastive. Even though the linguistcan identify and describe such differences, the speakers of thelanguage are often unaware of them because they are auto-matic or predictable varieties of the same sound. For example,in Palauan the letter d is used to represent four phonetically dif-ferent sounds, as in the following words. (Note that the phonetic

1 Sounds and Spelling of Palauan

2

transcription of the words is given in square brackets [ ]; theunfamiliar phonetic symbols will be explained below in the dis-cussions of d and other consonants).

(2) Palauan Spelling Phonetic Transcription English Glossdub [dup, ðup] ‘dynamite’dmak [tmakh] ‘together’dngod [θŋoð] ‘tattoo needle’

To most native speakers of Palauan, the sounds representedby the letter d in the above three words probably all soundalike. To the linguist-phonetician, however, they are very dif-ferent sounds: that is why the linguist uses four different pho-netic symbols [d, t, θ, ð] to represent what speakers of Palauanthink of as only one sound and what is spelled with the letterd. The differences among [d, t, θ, ð] which the linguist-pho-netician hears are non-contrastive or non-significant; such non-contrastive sounds are called allo phones of a particular sound(or phoneme). By studying the distribution of sounds in a lan-guage (i.e., where the sounds do and do not occur), the linguistcan predict which allophones of a particular phoneme will occurin a given environment. While contrastive sounds (or phonemes)provide us with minimal pairs, as in the case of tub ‘spit’—dub‘dynamite’ mentioned above, non-contrastive sounds (or allo-phones of a particular phoneme) never give us minimal pairs, aswill be illustrated below.

In the following discussion of the sound system of Palauan,we will examine the significant sounds (phonemes) of the lan-guage, as well as some of the non-significant variations (allo-phones) of these sounds. In addition, some discussion of thedistribution of these sounds will be given: In the discussion itwill be necessary to introduce some technical linguistic termsand concepts which are essential to our understanding of howthe Palauan sound system works.

1.3. THE CONSONANTS OF PALAUANThe consonants of Palauan can be seen at a glance in the fol-lowing chart. Notice that the chart includes labels arrangedhorizontally across the top and vertically along the left side. Itwill be worthwhile to learn these new terms and to associatethem with the facial diagram (Fig. 1) which shows the important

Palauan Reference Grammar

3

articulators and points of articulation which are used inmaking the sounds of Palauan. The sounds of speech are pro-duced when a particular articulator—e.g., the tip, blade, orback of the tongue—moves and touches some point of articu-lation—e.g., the teeth. In the production of certain sounds, pairsof speech organs serve simultaneously as articulator and pointof articulation; this happens, for example, when the lips arebrought together or when the vocal cords are closed againsteach other. A thorough understanding of how the sounds areproduced and their relationships to each other will help in un-derstanding the many complex changes that Palauan sounds un-dergo when different words or parts of words come togetherduring conversation.

CHART OF PALAUAN CONSONANTS

Points of Articulation

Manner ofarticulation

bilabial dental alveolar velar glottal

voiceless t k chStopsvoiced b d

Fricative sNasals m ngLiquids r, l

In the above chart, the five terms along the top—bilabial,dental, alveolar, velar, and glottal—represent the differentpoints of articulation at which consonants are pronounced,while the four terms at the left—stops (voiceless or voiced),fricative, nasals, and liquids—describe different manners (orways) of articulation.

1.3.1. STOPSThe largest subtype of Palauan consonants consists of the stopsb, t, d, k, and ch. These sounds are called stops because in theirproduction the outward flow of air which originated in the lungsis completely stopped at some point in its passage through thethroat or mouth; this stoppage is achieved by placing somearticulator against some point of articulation. Two Palauanstops, b and d, are labelled voiced, because when either ofthem occurs at the beginning of a word before a vowel (i.e.,


4

before a, i, e, o, or u—see 1.4 below), they are pronounced witha simultaneous vibration of the vocal cords. This vibration iscaused by air passing through the vocal cords, thus producing a“buzzing” sound called voicing. The term voiceless is used todescribe the stops t, k, and ch; in the production of such sounds,the vocal cords do not vibrate but remain at rest, and the air isallowed to pass quietly between them. (In addition to the threevoiceless stops t, k, and ch, Palauan has one other voicelesssound—s, which will be examined in some detail below.)

DIAGRAM OF THE HUMAN SPEECH ORGANSDrawing by Vanna Condax

Figure 1

Bilabial Stop b. The consonant represented by the letter b iscalled a bilabial stop because the outward air flow is stoppedcompletely by closing the two lips. When it occurs at the be-ginning of a word before an l or a vowel, it is voiced (phoneticsymbol [b]), as in the following examples:

(3) PalauanSpelling

PhoneticTranscription

English Gloss


5

blai [blay] ‘house’bloes [bloεs] ‘shot’bai [bay] ‘community

house’bung [buŋ] ‘flower’beot [bεoth] ‘easy’bilis [bilis] ‘dog’

When the consonant b occurs in certain environments, itspronunciation changes. For example, b is pronounced withoutvoicing when it immediately precedes or follows another conso-nant (except l) in the same word. In other words, in suchenvironments, b becomes a voiceless bilabial stop, which isrepresented by the phonetic symbol [p]. The different pronunci-ations of the consonant b as voiced [b] or voiceless [p] are non-significant; they are predictable from the kind of environmentin which b appears. We can therefore say that the differentpronunciations of b as [b] and [p] are allophones of b. As wementioned at the end of 1.2 above, non-contrastive sounds (orallophones of a given phoneme) never provide us with minimalpairs. Since [b] and [p] are non-contrastive sounds, we neverfind Palauan minimal pairs like *pung— bung. (The asteriskmark * is used to identify items which do not occur in thePalauan language.) Some examples showing the voiceless allo-phone of b preceding or following another consonant are givenhere:

(4) btuch [ptuɂ] ‘star’bsibs [psipsǝ] ‘drill’bngak [pŋakh] ‘my flower’brer [prεr] ‘raft’tbak [tpakh] ‘my spit’kbokb [kpokpǝ] ‘wall’

We can conclude that the Palauan consonant b is a phonemewhich has two allophones—[b] and [p]. The voiced allophone [b]occurs at the beginning of words (i.e., word-initially) beforevowels and the consonant l, and between two vowels, as in oba[oba] ‘have, carry’ and rubak [rubakh] ‘old man’. On the otherhand, the voiceless allophone [p] occurs before or after conso-nants other than l and at the end of words (i.e., word-finally),as in tub [tup] ‘spit’ and bob [bap] ‘above’.


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Dental Stops t and d. The consonants t and d are voiceless andvoiced, respectively. Like the consonant b, they are stops, be-cause they involve complete stoppage of the outward air flow.But while the closure for b is bilabial, the closure for t and d isdental. This dental closure is produced by placing the tonguetip (the articulator) against the back of the upper teeth (thepoint of articulation). In comparing b on the one hand with tand d on the other, we can say that the three sounds are thesame with respect to manner of articulation, since they areall stops; but b differs from t and d in point of articulation,since the former is produced at the lips, while the latter arearticulated in back of the teeth. Recall how this is shown inthe chart of Palauan consonants given in 1.3, where the termsacross the top represent the five points of articulation at which,consonants are found, while the terms listed at the left describethe four possible manners of articulation. Note further that tand d are identical in both point of articulation and mannerof articulation—i.e., they are both dental stops; what differen-tiates them is the presence or absence of voicing.

Both t and d have allophones which are determined by theenvironment in which each of them occurs. The consonant thas two different pronunciations. When t occurs at the end ofa word it is released quite strongly with an audible puff of air.This type of articulation is known as aspiration; the phoneticsymbol for such an aspirated t is [th]. The aspiration (or puff ofair) that accompanies a word-final t in Palauan can be heard inthe following words:

(5) liluut [liluwth] ‘returned’dakt [ðakth] ‘fear’chȩlat 1 [ɂǝlath] ‘smoked (fish)’

The other pronunciation of t involves no aspiration; thisunaspirated t is represented by the phonetic symbol [t]. Thisallophone of t occurs at the beginning of words (when either aconsonant or vowel follows) and within words (or word-inter-nally) when it is preceded by another consonant and followedby a vowel. The following examples illustrate these environ-ments:


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(6) tbak [tpakh] ‘my spit’tmuu [tmuw] ‘enter’tkul [tkul] ‘its edge’tȩruich [tǝruyɂǝ] ‘ten’tuu [tuw] ‘banana’tȩchang [tǝɂaŋ] ‘who?’rȩktel [rǝktεl] ‘his sickness’

We can therefore say that the Palauan phoneme t has two al-lophones whose distribution is predictable as specified below:

[th] (aspirated)—word-finally[t] (unaspirated)—elsewhere (i.e., word-initially and

word-internally).

The consonant d has four possible pronunciations, de-pending on the environment in which it occurs. To illustratethese different pronunciations, it will be necessary to introducetwo new phonetic symbols. They are [θ], which sounds like thefirst sound of the English word thin, and [ð], which sounds likethe first sound of the English word then. Both of these soundsare pronounced by putting the tongue tip against the back ofthe upper teeth without complete closure; thus, they are notstops, but fricatives. Fricatives involve partial closure or con-striction between the articulator and point of articulation; theircharacteristic quality is one of audible friction. While both [θ]and [ð] are therefore dental frica tives, the former is voicelesswhile the latter is voiced. They are not listed in the chart in 1.3because they are not separate phonemes, but merely allophonesof the phoneme d.

The distribution of the four possible pronunciations of d maybe summarized as follows:

a. Word-initially before a vowel, the pronunciation of dranges from [d] to [ð]; in this environment, [d] tends to appearin rapid, casual speech, while [ð] is heard in more careful, con-trolled speech. Words which show this alternate pronunciationinclude

(7) dub [dup, ðup] ‘dynamite’deel [dεyl, ðεyl] ‘nail’


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b. Word-initially before a consonant, the pronunciation of dvaries between [t] and [θ]. The allophone [t] tends to appearbefore b and m and in rapid speech in general, while [θ] occursbefore k and ng and in careful pronunciation. Some wordsillustrating these allophones are listed below:

(8) dmak [tmakh] ‘together’dbak [tpakh] ‘my dynamite’dngod [θŋoð] ‘tattoo needle’

You may have noticed that tbak ‘my spit’ (cf. 6 above) anddbak ‘my dynamite’ are pronounced in the same way, eventhough they are spelled differently. This identical pronunciationis reflected in identical phonetic transcriptions—namely, [tpakh]for both words—and is due to the fact that t has the voicelessallophone [t] word-initially (before any consonant) and d alsohas the voiceless allophone [t] word-initially before a b. If weheard the word [tpakh] spoken in isolation, we would thereforebe unable to tell whether the utterance meant ‘my spit’ or‘my dynamite’; however, looking at the written forms poses nodifficulty, since tbak ‘my spit’ is spelled with the same word-initial consonant as tub [tup] ‘spit’, while dbak ‘my dynamite’ isspelled with the same initial consonant as dub [dup, ðup] ‘dy-namite’.

c. When the consonant d occurs between vowels or at theend of a word, it is pronounced with the allophone [ð], as in thefollowing examples:

(9) mȩdal [mǝðal] ‘his face’kȩdeb [kǝðεp] ‘short’chȩdil [ɂǝðil] ‘mother’bad [bað] ‘stone’kid [kið] ‘we’eangȩd [yaŋǝð] ‘sky’

Velar Stop k. The consonant represented by the letter k is calleda velar stop because it is articulated by raising the back of thetongue (the articulator) against the velum (the point of artic-ulation) to form a complete closure. This consonant has threeprincipal allophones, whose distribution is described below:


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a. When k occurs word-finally, it is pronounced with aspi-ration; the phonetic symbol for this aspirated allophone of k is[kh]. Observe the words below:

(10) brak [prakh] ‘taro’chȩrmek 2 [ɂǝrmεkh] ‘my animal’dȩrumk [ðǝrumkh] ‘thunder’

What other Palauan consonant which we have studied thus farhas an aspirated allophone with the same kind of distribution?

b. Word-initially (before a consonant or vowel), k is pro-nounced with the unaspirated allophone [k], as the following ex-amples show:

(11) klou [klow] ‘big’kmarȩd [kmarǝð] ‘light’kid [kið] ‘we’ker [kεr] ‘question’

This allophone also appears word-internally when k is next toany consonant except l, as in lotkii [lotkiy] ‘remembers it’, skuul[skuwl] ‘school’, and kbokb [kpokpǝ] ‘wall’.

c. Between vowels, k is pronounced with the voiced allo-phone [g], as in the words below:

(12) olȩkiis [olǝgiys] ‘wake up’mȩkeald [mǝgεalðǝ] ‘warm’rȩkas [rǝgas] ‘mosquito’

Do you recall any other Palauan consonant which has a voicedallophone between vowels?

Glottal Stop ch. The consonant ch is formed by closing the vocalcords tightly against each other to impede the outward flowof air. Since the space between the vocal cords is called theglottis, the stop sound described here is known as a glottalstop (phonetic symbol [ɂ]). Although a sequence of twoletters—ch—is used in the Palauan spelling system to write theglottal stop, it is just a single consonant sound like b, t, d, or k.The English sound system does not have a glottal stop phoneme,


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but speakers of American English frequently use [ɂ] in certainwords. For example, the negative expression uh uh is normallypronounced with a glottal stop at the beginning of each of itssyllables.

The Palauan glottal stop phoneme shows no allophonic vari-ation, and is pronounced as [ɂ] in all environments. A samplingof words containing this sound is given here:

(13) charm [ɂarm] ‘animal’chisel [ɂisεl] ‘news of him’mȩched [mǝɂεð] ‘shallow’dȩngchokl [ðǝŋɂoklǝ] ‘sit’taoch [taoɂ] ‘channel’tȩruich [tǝruyɂǝ] ‘ten’

Some special comment needs to be made about when andwhen not to spell words with an initial ch. There are somePalauan words which are pronounced with an initial glottal stopunder all circumstances—that is, regardless of whether they arespoken in isolation or spoken following another word within asentence. For example, words like chad ‘person’ or chull ‘rain’are pronounced as [ɂað] and [ɂul:ǝ], respectively, both whenspoken alone and when preceded by another word in simplesentences like

(14) a. Ng chad ȩr a Siabal. [ŋɂaðǝrasyabal] 3‘He’s Japanese.’

b. Ng chull. [ŋɂul:ǝ]‘It’s raining.’

On the other hand, there are some words which have aninitial glottal stop when spoken in isolation, but lose this glottalstop when preceded by another word. For example, words likeoles ‘knife’ and omes ‘see’ are [ɂolεs] and [ɂomεs], respectively,when uttered in isolation. Note, however, that the initial [ɂ] dis-appears in simple sentences like

(15) a. Ng oles. [ŋolεs]‘It’s a knife.’

b. Ak mla omes ȩr ngii. [akmlaomεsǝrŋiy]‘I’ve seen him.’


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As the Palauan spelling of the words under discussion in-dicates, a word is always spelled with initial ch if the [ɂ]pronunciation is maintained within sentences; on the otherhand, if no initial [ɂ] is pronounced when a word appears ina sentence, then no initial ch is ever included in the spelling.When you are in doubt about whether or not to spell a word withan initial ch, you can easily test it by using it in sentences like14–15.

1.3.2. FRICATIVEWe have seen in 1.3.1. above that the stop consonants ofPalauan are characterized by complete stoppage or interruptionof the outward air flow; this is achieved by placing some ar-ticulator tightly against some point of articulation. It is alsopossible to produce consonants by forming a partial closureor constriction between articulator and point of articulation.When the outward flow of air is forced through such a narrowpassage, audible friction is heard. For this reason, such soundsare called fricatives. Palauan has only one fricative, thephoneme s. This sound, which can be identified by a strong“hissing” quality, is produced by touching the sides of the bladeof the tongue against the teeth and part of the alveolar ridge,which is the bony protrusion above the teeth. Because thealveolar ridge is involved in its pronunciation, s is classified asan alveolar fricative in the chart in 1.3. Palauan s is alwaysvoiceless and usually sounds as if it is somewhere betweenEnglish sh (as in she) and s (as in see). It does not show any allo-phonic variation and is pronounced as [s] in all positions. Somewords containing s are now given:

(16) sils [sils] ‘sun’sers [sεrs] ‘garden’mȩsilȩk [mǝsilǝkh] ‘wash’mȩngiis [mǝŋiys] ‘dig’

1.3.3. NASALSIn Fig. 1 you will notice that the outward air flow from the lungscan escape either through the mouth or the nasal passage. Inmost languages, either one or the other of these “escape routes”is closed off during the production of consonant sounds. All ofthe Palauan stops and the fricative s, for example, involve air


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passing through the mouth only; during the pronunciation ofthese sounds, air is prevented from entering the nasal passageby raising the velum against the back wall of the throat (seeFig.1). On the other hand, Palauan nasal sounds are madeby forming a closure somewhere in the mouth and leaving thevelum at rest so that the air flow can pass freely through thenasal passage.

Bilabial nasal m. The nasal sound m is produced simply byholding the lips tightly closed and letting the air escape throughthe nose. Because the two lips are used to make the closure,this nasal is identified as bilabial. (What is the other bilabialconsonant of Palauan?) The bilabial nasal m has no allophonicvariants and is pronounced [m] in all of its occurrences:

(17) mad [mað] ‘die’omoes [omoεs] ‘shoot’blim [blim] ‘your house’

Velar nasal ng. In articulating the nasal sound ng, the speakerblocks off the passage of air through the mouth with a closurebetween the back of the tongue (articulator) and the velum(point of articulation), while leaving the nasal passage open.Since the air is prevented from entering the mouth at the velum,this nasal is classified as velar. (What is the other velar con-sonant of Palauan?)

Though represented in Palauan spelling with a sequence oftwo letters, the velar nasal ng is one single sound. It has twoprincipal allophones, whose distribution is specified as follows:

a. Before t, d, s, and r, ng is pronounced as a dental nasal(phonetic symbol [n]). Because this allophone is a nasal, the out-ward air flow passes through the nose, but the closure in themouth is made by placing the tongue tip against the back of theupper teeth (cf. the articulation of t and d). Some examples con-taining the [n] allophone of ng are now given:

(18) iungs [yuns] ‘island’mȩrangd [mǝranðǝ] ‘(a kind of) coral’sȩngsongd [sǝnsonðǝ] ‘stick’ngduul [ṇduwl] ‘clam’


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ngriil [ṇriyl] ‘place near beach’ng til [ṇtil] ‘it’s her purse’

The dot in the phonetic representation [ṇ] means that the dentalnasal allophone of ng is pronounced as a separate syllable—see1.3.5. below.

b. In all environments distinct from those described in thepreceding paragraph, the consonant ng is pronounced as a velarnasal (the phonetic symbol for this sound, which is found atthe end of English words like sing, is [ŋ]). In other words, theallophone [ŋ] appears before vowels, in word-final position, andbefore consonants other than t, d, s, and r. Some examples arelisted below:

(19) ngau [ŋaw] ‘fire’ngor [ŋor] ‘mouth’reng [rεŋ] ‘heart, spirit’bung [buŋ] ‘flower’ngklem [ŋklεm] ‘your name’nglim [ŋlim] ‘drunk (up)’ng chȩtik [ŋɂǝtikh] ‘I don’t like it.’

Is there any good explanation we can give for the distri-bution of the allophones of ng? Notice that the dental nasalallophone [n] occurs only before sounds which are dental oralveolar; in other words, this allophone precedes sounds whosepoint of articulation (dental or alveolar) is close to its own. Onthe other hand, the velar nasal allophone [ŋ] has a less re-stricted distribution, since it occurs before all vowels, in word-final position, and before consonants such as k, ch, and l. If weassume that because of this less restricted distribution the al-lophone [ŋ] is somehow more “basic” than [n], we can say that[ŋ] changes to [n] before t, d, s, and r because speakers movethe point of articulation of the nasal forward (from a velar to adental position) in anticipation of the pronunciation of the fol-lowing consonant. This process, which is very common in lan-guages, is called assimilation. In the case under discussion, wesay that [ŋ] has assimilated to (or has become similar in pro-nunciation to) a following t, d, s, or r, thereby becoming [n].


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The only exceptions to the above-mentioned distribution ofthe allophones of ng are found among words which have beenborrowed into Palauan from Japanese and English. In suchwords the allophone [n] appears in environments other thanbefore t, d, s, and r. Some examples are nas [nas] ‘eggplant’,niziu [niǰuw] ‘twenty (used often when counting change)’, John[ǰan], etc. In spelling these words, Palauans use the single lettern rather than the letter sequence ng. Note, further, that inspelling a word of Japanese origin such as sensei ‘teacher’ thesingle letter n is used instead of ng, even before the dental con-sonant s.

Special mention needs to be made about when and when notto spell ng at the end of one and the same word. Quite a fewPalauan words end in a, o, or u when pronounced within a sen-tence, but they have a word-final ng when spoken in isolation orat the end of a sentence. This common rule of Palauan pronun-ciation is illustrated in the sentences below, where the wordsmȩnga ‘eat’ and mo ‘go’ are spelled in two different ways:

(20) a. Ak mo mȩngang.‘I’m going to eat (it).’

b. Ak mo mȩnga ȩr a ngikȩl.‘I’m going to eat the fish.’

(21) a. Ng mong.‘He’s going.’

b. Ng mo ȩr a skuul.‘He’s going to school.’

The rule for spelling words of this kind is simple to remember: ifword-final ng is pronounced and heard, as in 20a and 21a above,we also spell ng; if, however, no ng is pronounced or heard, asin 20b and 21b, it is omitted from the spelling. When words likemȩnga ‘eat’ and mo ‘go’ are cited for discussion in this text, theywill be cited in the shorter form.

In addition to the above, there are many Palauan wordswhich are always pronounced with a final ng, even within sen-tences. Words of this type, which of course are always spelledwith word-final ng, include native Palauan words like bung


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‘flower’, bang ‘goatfish’, ding ‘ear’, reng ‘heart’, and chȩdeng‘shark’, and borrowed words like hong ‘book’ and blatong‘plate’.

1.3.4. LIQUIDSThe Palauan consonants which we have already discussed ex-hibit three different types of articulation. The non-nasal con-sonants involve either complete closure (the stops b, t, d, k,and ch) or narrowing (the fricative s) of the speech tract. Thenasal con sonants m and ŋ are characterized by closure in onepart of the speech tract (i.e., the mouth) and free passage in theother (i.e., the nose). In this section we will examine a fourthtype of Palauan consonant—the liquids l and r. Both of theseconsonants are articulated by making a partial closure in themouth.

Liquid 1. The consonant l is made by touching the upper surfaceof the blade of the tongue against the top teeth and alveolarridge and by allowing some air to escape over the sides of thetongue. It has no significant allophonic variations and appearsas [l] in all environments. The following are some examples con-taining l:

(22) lius [lius] ‘coconut’luut [luwth] ‘return’mȩlai [mǝlay] ‘take’rael [raεl] ‘road’

Liquid r. The consonant r is called a tapped r because it is madewith a quick tapping movement of the tongue tip against thealveolar ridge above the upper teeth. Though there is a specialphonetic symbol for this tapped r, it will be adequate for ourpurposes to use [r]. This sound appears in all environments, asin the words below:

(23) rakt [rakth] ‘sickness’rȩkas [rǝgas] ‘mosquito’bȩras [bǝras] ‘rice’kar [kar] ‘medicine’


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1.3.4.1. The Sequences ll and rrIn some Palauan words, two identical liquid consonants occurnext to each other. The sequence ll differs from l in that it isheld about twice as long as the single consonant. The phoneticrepresentation for this long l is [l:], where the colon [:] indi-cates the extra length. The sequence rr differs from r in thatit is pronounced as a trilled r rather than a tapped r. A trilledr (phonetic symbol [r]̄) is composed of two or three tapped r’spronounced in rapid succession. The words below illustrate thePalauan sequences ll and rr in various positions:

(24) llel [l:εl] ‘its leaf’kall [kal:ǝ] ‘food’rrom [rōm] ‘liquor’kȩrrȩkar [kǝrǝ̄gar] ‘tree’rruul 4 [rūwl] ‘made, done’

1.3.5. SYLLABIC CONSONANTSThe words of Palauan can consist of different numbers of syllables, or pulses of air. It is fairly easy to count syllables: forexample, kar ‘medicine’ has one, elii ‘yesterday’ has two, mȩdȩngȩltȩrir ‘knows them’ has five, and so on. When any con-sonant occurs before a vowel, it is pronounced along with thatvowel as part of the same syllable. In bilek ‘my clothing’, forinstance, b is part of the first syllable and l is part of thesecond. When certain types of consonants—specifically, nasalsand liquids—occur before other consonants in word-initial po-sition, they become syllabic—that is, they are pronounced asseparate syllables. To indicate this syllabic quality in the pho-netic transcription, a dot is placed under the regular phoneticsymbol for the nasal or liquid—i.e., [ṃ], [ŋ], [ḷ], and [ṛ]. Thesesyllabic consonants appear in cases like the following:

(25) ng boes [ṃboεs] 5 ‘it’s a gun’mchiiȩlak [ṃɂiyǝlakh] ‘wait for me!’Ngchesar [ŋɂεsar] (village name)nglim [ŋlim] ‘drunk (up)’ngduul [ṇduwl] ‘clam’lmangȩl [ḷmaŋǝl] ‘cry’ltel [ḷtεl] ‘his return’rsȩchek [ṛsǝɂεkh] ‘my blood’


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rtangȩl [ṛtaŋǝl] ‘is to be pounded’

Syllabic r ([ṛ]) is pronounced as a trilled r by some speakersand with considerable friction by others. The only exception tothe analysis given above concerns the sequence ml, as in mlai[mlay] ‘canoe’. Here, the m is not syllabic but is pronouncedalong with the other sounds in the word as a single syllable.

1.4. THE VOWELS OF PALAUANThe vowels of Palauan are summarized in the following chart:

CHART OF PALAUAN VOWELS

Tongue advancement

Tongue height front central backhigh i umid e ȩ olow a

Along the left side of the chart, three levels of tongue heightare shown, while along the top, three degrees of tongue ad-vancement are indicated. These terms will be explained indetail below. Unlike consonants, which involve closure or nar-rowing of the speech tract, vowels allow relatively free, unre-stricted passage of the outward air flow. The different vowelsounds (or vowel qualities) are produced by changing theshape of the mouth cavity; this is accomplished by holding thetongue in various positions, each of which can be described interms of tongue height and tongue advancement. All Palauanvowels are automatically voiced (i.e., the vocal cords vibrateduring their production) and are pronounced with the velumraised to shut off the nasal passage (i.e., they do not have a“nasal” quality).

Palauan vowels distinguish three degrees of tongue height—high, mid, and low. High vowels are pronounced with thetongue raised high in the mouth and very close to the palate;low vowels are articulated with the tongue low in the mouth,relatively distant from the palate; and mid vowels are pro-nounced somewhere in between. To get some idea of the “dis-tance” between high vowels and low vowels (which are at the


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“extreme” ends of the series), simply watch what happens toyour mouth during the pronunciation of pairs of vowels like i-a and u-a. When you move from the high vowels i and u tothe low vowel a, your mouth opens widely; here, the jaw islowered in order to get the tongue into a low position. Now tryto pronounce the vowel sequence i-e-a; you should be able torecognize three different positions of vowel height as your jawmoves progressively lower. For further practice, move in the op-posite direction from low to high—i.e., a-e-i.

1.4.1. HIGH VOWELS i AND uDifferences in tongue height are not sufficient to distinguish allof the Palauan vowels from each other. For example, the chartin 1.4 above shows that Palauan has two high vowels—i and u.While both of these vowels are articulated with the tongue in arelatively high position, they differ from each other with respectto tongue advancement. In pronouncing i, the blade (or front) ofthe tongue is advanced and raised towards the alveolar ridgeand the front portion of the palate. In pronouncing u, however,the tongue is retracted and the back of the tongue is raisedtowards the back portion of the palate and the velum. Becausethe tongue is advanced towards the front of the mouth for i,this vowel is identified as a high front vowel; and becauseu involves a retraction of the tongue towards the back of themouth, it is labelled as a high back vowel. It is not all thateasy to observe or feel the difference in tongue advancementbetween i and u. However, if you try to repeat these vowels insuccession (i-u, i-u, etc.) you may be able to feel the tongue re-tract as you move from i to u. One further difference betweenthese two vowels is easier to recognize. Notice that when youpronounce u, your lips become rounded as if you are going towhistle; this rounding is absent for i, where your lips remainspread apart, as if you are beginning to smile. Thus, we say thatu is a rounded vowel while i is an unrounded vowel.

Although vowels, like consonants, can have allophones, thevowels of Palauan in general show little allophonic variation.Therefore, as the words below illustrate, i is pronounced [i](similar to the vowel sound in English heat) and u is pronounced[u] (similar to the u in English rude) under all circumstances:

(26) sils [sils] ‘sun’kim [kim] ‘large clam’


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chisel [ɂisεl] ‘news of him’mȩtik [mǝtikh] ‘find’btuch [ptuɂ] ‘star’bung [buŋ] ‘flower’kȩruk [kǝrukh] ‘my medicine’subȩlek [subǝlεkh] ‘my homework’

1.4.2. MID VOWELS e, ȩ, AND oWhile the high vowels show two degrees of tongue ad-vancement, the mid vowels show three. In addition to the midfront vowel e and the mid back vowel o, we have the midcentral vowel ȩ . In the pronunciation of this vowel, the tongueis neither advanced (as for e) nor retracted (as for o); rather,the tongue remains flat and at rest. The mid central vowel ȩand the mid front vowel e are quite different in pronunciation:ȩ sounds something like the weak vowel “uh” in English wordslike “about” and “again”, while e sounds like the vowel inEnglish “bed.” The phonetic symbol for the mid central vowelȩ is [ǝ] (commonly referred to as schwa), and that for the midfront vowel e is [ε]. As you know, the Palauan spelling systemuses only one letter—namely, e—to spell both of the sounds [ε]and [ǝ]. Although speakers of Palauan will not find this con-fusing, non-native speakers may have trouble deciding when topronounce the letter e as [ε] and when to pronounce it as [ǝ]. Toassist non-native speakers, in this text we shall use the specialsymbol ȩ (e with a comma under it) to represent [ǝ]. As you willsee later, it will be handy to have the two symbols e and ȩ inorder to make certain discussions clear.

In the list below, you will find some common Palauan wordscontaining the mid vowels e and o. (Further discussion of ȩ willcontinue below.)

(27) sers [sεrs] ‘garden’ngklel [ŋklεl] ‘his name’elii [εliy] ‘yesterday’ngor [ŋor] ‘mouth’oles [olεs] ‘knife’mȩlȩcholb [mǝlǝɂolbǝ] ‘bathe’


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There is one important difference between the pronunciationsof e and o which we have not yet mentioned: o is a roundedvowel, while e is not. Recall that among the high vowels, uis rounded, while i is not. What similarity of pattern can youidentify?

The Palauan vowel ȩ has a very restricted distribution, sinceit occurs only in unstressed syllables. Every Palauan word oftwo or more syllables has just one stressed syllable, with theremaining syllables unstressed. It is usually not too difficult toidentify the stressed syllable in such words, since this syllabletends to be louder and stronger than the nearby syllables. Forpractice, compare the stressed syllable with the unstressedsyllables in words like klúkuk ‘tomorrow’, mȩngȩlébȩd ‘hit’,ngklém ‘your name’, and chillȩbȩdák ‘hit me’. To identify thestressed syllable, a stress mark (') has been placed over thevowel which is found in it; this stress mark, however, is not usedin the Palauan spelling system. Until now, we have not identifiedthe stressed syllables in our phonetic transcriptions of Palauanmultisyllabic words, although a completely specified phonetictranscription would have to take account of them.

The list below contains words of two or more syllables whichhave already appeared in this chapter. The stressed syllable hasbeen identified with a stress mark. Notice that every ȩ (schwa= [ǝ]) which occurs is found in an unstressed syllable.

(28) chȩlat [ɂǝláth] ‘smoked (fish)’tȩchang [tǝɂáŋ] ‘who?’rȩktel [rǝktέl] ‘his sickness’eangȩd [yáŋǝð] ‘sky’kmarȩd [kmárǝð] ‘light’olȩkiis [olǝgíys] ‘wake up’mȩsilȩk [mǝsílǝkh] ‘wash’lmangȩl [ḷmáŋǝl] ‘cry’mȩngȩlebȩd [mǝŋǝlέbǝð] ‘hit’

Note further that since the great majority of Palauan one-syl-lable words are stressed, there are almost no Palauan one-syl-lable words containing ȩ. 6


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1.4.3. LOW VOWEL aThe only low vowel in Palauan is a (phonetic symbol [a]), whichis classified as a low central vowel. There is no contrast be-tween front and back low vowels in Palauan. Several words con-taining this vowel are listed below:

(29) chad [ɂað] ‘person’mȩlat [mǝláth] ‘tear, rip’ngak [ŋakh] ‘I, me’

1.4.4. THE VOWEL ȩ AND THE PROCESS OF VOWEL REDUCTIONThe six vowels listed in the chart in 1.4 above are among thesignificant sounds (or phonemes) of Palauan. It is possible tofind minimal pairs which show how the various vowels con-trast with each other in otherwise identical environments. Note,for example, the minimal pairs kar ‘medicine’—ker ‘question’,char ‘price’— chur ‘laughter’, kid ‘we’—ked ‘hill’, and delék‘my nail’—dȩlék ‘my abdomen’. In the last minimal pair cited,the vowels e and ȩ contrast in an unstressed syllable. Since ȩoccurs only in unstressed syllables, it is extremely difficult tofind minimal pairs which show ȩ to be contrastive with othervowels. For this and another reason to be explained below, manylinguists would not recognize the mid central vowel ȩ as a sep-arate phoneme of Palauan, but would consider it an allophoneof some other vowel phoneme or phonemes.

When we compare related forms of certain words, we cansee a close relationship between ȩ and various other vowels. Inthe list below, the left column gives the simple form of a word,while the right column gives one of its “possessed” forms:

(30) Simple form Possessed form

bsibs ‘drill’ bsȩbsék ‘my drill’chur ‘laughter’ chȩrík ‘my laughter’sers ‘garden’ sȩrsék ‘my garden’ngor ‘mouth’ ngȩrék ‘my mouth’kar ‘medicine’ kȩrúk ‘my medicine’

The words in the left column contain instances of the vowels i,u, e, o, and a. In each of the corresponding possessed forms, themid central vowel ȩ appears where we would expect the vowels


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i, u, e, o, or a. The possessed forms have two syllables (you willnotice that one of the endings -ek, -ik, or -uk has been addedto each of them), of which the first is unstressed and second isstressed. Since the vowel ȩ appears in an unstressed syllablewhere we would expect some other vowel, it seems as if i, u,e, o, and a have changed to ȩ in this environment. This kind ofprocess, which is called vowel reduction, is observed in manylanguages of the world: commonly, certain full vowels reduceto the “weaker” or more “neutral” mid central vowel schwaunder certain conditions. We shall now explain this statementfurther.

If we rewrite the chart of vowels given in 1.4 as a kind of“vowel triangle”—namely,

—we can see that ȩ is more or less in the middle while the othervowels are at the edges or extremes. From the point of view oftongue height and tongue advancement, the mid central vowelȩ is least extreme or deviant in its articulation: it is neither highnor low, nor is it front or back. For this reason, the mid centralvowel ȩ may be described as a neutral vowel, while i, u, e,o, and a are referred to as full vowels. In Palauan, then, as inmany languages, the full vowels lose their basic qualities (i.e.,no longer sound like [i], [u], etc.) and reduce to a neutral vowel(i.e., ȩ [a]) in unstressed syllables. Because ȩ therefore resultsfrom (or is derived from) any of the full vowels, some linguistswould argue that it is not a separate phoneme but merely one ofthe allophones of each of the full vowels. The process of vowelreduction introduced by the examples of 30 above will be pre-sented in greater detail in 3.4.


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1.4.5. OTHER OCCURRENCES OF SCHWAYou may have noticed that our phonetic transcriptions forcertain words show word-final schwas which are not reflected inthe Palauan spelling. A few of these words are repeated, alongwith new examples, in the list below:

(31) bsibs [psípsǝ] ‘drill’kbokb [kpókpǝ] ‘wall’mȩkeald [mǝkεálðǝ] ‘warm’dȩngchokl [ðǝŋɂóklǝ] ‘sit’mȩrangd [mǝránðǝ] ‘(a kind of) coral’mȩlȩcholb [mǝlǝɂólbǝ] ‘bathe’ralm [rálmǝ] ‘water’diall [ðiál:ǝ] ‘ship’

The appearance of word-final [ǝ] in the examples of 31 illus-trates a very general rule of Palauan pronunciation: whenevera word ends in a sequence of two consonants, this clusterof consonants is followed by a schwa release (which is ofcourse unstressed). Because the schwa release is predictableand speakers always pronounce it automatically, it does notneed to be indicated in the spelling.

In some instances, a word-final u preceded by a consonantalso results in a schwa release; here, too, the schwa is not re-flected in the spelling. Some words which fall into this categoryinclude the following:

(32) Palauanspelling 7

Phonetictranscription

English gloss

omdasu [omðáswǝ] ‘think’ochadu [oɂáðwǝ] ‘something to cut with,

tongs’kuoku [kwókwǝ] ‘skin which is shed’

Sometimes a schwa is predictably added to break up a parti-cular cluster of consonants. For example, sequences of the formdental consonant + l (i.e., tl, dl, and sl) never occur in Palauan.It is also impossible for ch to be directly preceded or followedby another consonant. When such “impossible” combinationsresult from certain types of word formation, a schwa must beinserted to separate the consonants. The words below, for ex-


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ample, are formed by inserting an l after the first consonant;the resulting consonant cluster must be broken up with an in-tervening schwa, which is also indicated in the Palauan spelling.

(33) Palauan spelling 8 Phonetic transcription English glosstȩlub [tǝlúb] ‘spat’dȩlangȩb [ðǝláǝb] ‘covered’sȩlesȩb [sǝlέsǝb] ‘burned’chȩlat [ɂǝláth] ‘smoked’

Schwa often occurs next to or between vowels which are notstressed. In such cases, it is indicated in the spelling, as the fol-lowing examples illustrate:

(34) Palauan spelling 9 Phonetic transcription English glosschuiȩuíi [ɂuyǝwíy] ‘reads it’kiiȩsíi [kiyǝsíy] ‘digs it’kiuȩtíi [kiwǝtíy] ‘cuts it’siuȩsíi [siwǝsíy] ‘cures it’

1.4.6. LONG VOWELSAll the full vowels of Palauan except a can occur long. Theselong vowels are spelled simply by doubling the letter—i.e., ii,uu, ee, and oo. Phonetically, Palauan long vowels are indeedgreater in length (i.e., time it takes to say them) than the corre-sponding short vowels, but they also have some additional fea-tures. All of the long vowels contain a gliding articulation. Thefront vowels i and e are followed by a y-glide when long, whilethe back vowels u and o are followed by a w-glide. The glidesounds y and w involve movement of the tongue towards a highfront or a high back position, respectively. In forming ee, for ex-ample, the tongue makes a smooth transition from the mid frontposition of e to a high front position; similarly, in articulating oo,the tongue begins at the mid back position for o and then movestowards a high back position. In this text, long vowels are in-dicated in the phonetic transcriptions as sequences of vowel +glide, and we will use the phonetic symbols [y] and [w] to standfor these glides. The list below contains words with long vowels:

(35) diil [ðiyl] ‘abdomen’ngii [ŋiy] ‘he, she, it’buuch [buwɂǝ] ‘betel nut’


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ngduul [ṇduwl] ‘clam’deel [dεyl] ‘nail’kmeed [kmεyð] ‘near’dȩkool [dǝgowl] ‘cigarette’sȩkool [sǝgowl] ‘playful’

The difference between short vowels and long vowels inPalauan is phonemic because it can serve to distinguish be-tween otherwise identical words. This phonemic differencemeans that we can find minimal pairs in which a short vowelcontrasts with a long vowel in exactly the same envi-ronment—e.g., buch ‘spouse’—buuch ‘betel nut’ and chis ‘de-pression in the sea floor’— chiis ‘escape’.

1.4.7. VOWEL CLUSTERSAs many of the words in this chapter illustrate, Palauan con-sonants can occur in different combinations or clusters; suchclusters are found in words like mlai ‘canoe’, tkul ‘its edge’,brer ‘raft’, and rakt ‘sickness’. It is also possible for the fullvowels of Palauan to appear in various kinds of clusters. Of thetwo adjacent vowels, one or the other may be stressed, or—lessfrequently—neither may be stressed. Given only the Palauanspelling of words containing vowel clusters, it is very difficult topredict the correct pronunciation. This is because some of the(spelled) vowels are pronounced in different ways, dependingon whether or not they are stressed and whether they precedeor follow the adjacent vowel. Before formulating some of thesevery complicated rules of pronunciation, let us list a represen-tative number of Palauan words which contain vowel clusters.Stress marks are indicated in the Palauan spellings and in thephonetic transcriptions because we will need to refer to stressin the rules of pronunciation.

(36) 1. eángȩd [yáŋǝð] ‘sky’2. eólt [yóltǝ] ‘wind’3. iédȩl [yέðǝl] ‘mango’4. iúngs [yúns] ‘island’5. eungél [εuŋέl] ‘under it’6. oách [wáɂ] ‘leg’7. uél [wέl] ‘turtle’8. uingȩl [wiŋǝl] ‘tooth’9. soál [soál] ‘his wish’


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10. cháus [ɂáws] ‘lime’11. ngáu [ŋáw] ‘fire’12. kléu [klέw] ‘young coconut’13. udóud [uðówð] ‘money’14. klóu [klów] ‘big’15. suélȩb [swέlǝb] ‘noon’16. suóbȩl [swóbǝl] ‘study, homework’17. báil [báyl] ‘clothing’18. róis [róys] ‘mountain’19. búil [búyl] ‘moon’20. chúi [ɂúy] ‘hair’21. blái [bláy] ‘house’22. tȩkói [tǝgóy] ‘word’23. sȩchȩléi [sǝɂǝlέy] ‘friend’24. díak [ðíakh] ‘isn’t’25. líus [líus] ‘coconut’26. diáll [ðiál:ǝ] ‘ship’27. ráel [ráεl] ‘road’28. bóes [bóεs] ‘gun’29. táoch [táoɂ] ‘channel’30. díong [ðíoŋ] ‘bathing place’

In order to account for the phonetic transcriptions of 36, weneed to formulate rules of pronunciation like the following:

a. Word-initially before any stressed vowel, the unstressedfront vowels e and i are pronounced as the glide [y] (see items1–4 in the list above). If word-initial unstressed e precedes an-other unstressed vowel, however, as in item 5, it is pronounced[ε].

b. Word-initially before any stressed vowel, the unstressedback vowels o and u are pronounced as the glide [w] (seeitems 6–8). Word-internally before a stressed vowel, however,unstressed o is pronounced [o], as in item 9.

c. Word-internal or word-final unstressed u’s are pro-nounced as the glide [w], regardless of whether a stressedvowel precedes them (as in items 10–14) or follows them (as initems 15–16).


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d. Following a stressed vowel word-internally and word-fi-nally, i is pronounced as the glide [y] (see items 17–23). Pre-ceding a vowel word-internally, however, i is pronounced [i],whether it is stressed (as in items 24–25) or unstressed (as initem 26).

e. Word-internally following stressed vowels, e is pro-nounced [ε], as in items 27–28, and o is pronounced [o], as initems 29–30.

We must give special attention to the problem of when andwhen not to spell a word with a final vowel cluster ei. A goodnumber of Palauan words which end in e when pronouncedwithin a sentence take a word-final i when spoken in isolationor at the end of a sentence. The sentences below, which containme ‘come’ and che ‘fishing’, illustrate this variation in pronunci-ation:

(37) a. A Droteo a mei.‘Droteo is coming.’

b. A Droteo a me ȩr a blik.‘Droteo is coming to my house.’

(38) a. Ng mo ȩr a chei.‘He is going fishing.’

b. Ng mo ȩr a che ȩr a klukuk.‘He is going fishing tomorrow.’

The rule of spelling involved here is similar to that observed forword-final ng at the end of 1.3.3 above: in other words, if word-final i is pronounced and heard, as in 37a and 38a, it is alsospelled; if, on the other hand, no i is pronounced or heard, as in37b and 38b, it is not included in the spelling. When cited fordiscussion in this text, words like me ‘come’ and che ‘fishing’will be cited in the shorter form.


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1.5. FURTHER RULES OF PALAUAN SPELLINGIn this section we will list various spelling rules of Palauanwhich have not been covered in the sections above. Most of therules below concern the proper spelling of individual words andphrases. Often, the decision to spell something as a separateword is based on a grammatical analysis of the item in question.Such analysis allows us to identify or isolate one and the sameword as it appears in different, though related, constructions.Our understanding of many aspects of Palauan grammaticalstructure will be facilitated if we spell a particular word in thesame way in all of its occurrences, even though there mightbe some differences in pronunciation from one occurrence toanother. In the discussion which follows, we will try to keepreferences to grammatical terms and concepts at a minimum;however, any terms or concepts which do need to be introducedfor purposes of identification will be given thorough treatmentelsewhere in the text.

a. The relational word ȩ r, which has a wide range ofEnglish equivalents such as ‘in, at, to, from, out of, of, becauseof’, etc., is always spelled as a separate word. Furthermore, theword a, which precedes all verbs and nouns (but not pronounsor demon stratives), should be spelled as a separate word. Ob-serve the following examples:

(39) a. Ak mo ȩr a skuul.‘I’m going to school.’

b. Kȩ mo ȩr ker?‘Where are you going?’

c. Ak mȩsuub a tȩkoi ȩr a Merikel.‘I am studying English.’

d. Ak milsuub ȩr a blik.‘I was studying at home.’

e. Ak mȩrael ȩr a klukuk.‘I am leaving tomorrow.’

f. Ng hong 10 ȩr a Droteo.‘It’s Droteo’s book.’


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g. Ng hong ȩr ngii.‘It’s his book.’

h. A Droteo a milil ȩr tiang.‘Droteo is playing here.’

The word ȩr is not pronounced identically in all the examplesof 39. If the preceding word is vowel-final, as in 39a–c, the ȩ ofȩ r is dropped; thus, for example, the three words mo ȩr a of39a are pronounced [mora]. On the other hand, if the precedingword is consonant-final, as in 39d–h, the vowel of ȩr is retained,giving [ǝr].

In certain cases, we know from the grammatical structurethat we have a sequence of the form ȩr + a + noun, even thoughthe a is not pronounced. The following expressions fall into thiscategory:

(40) er a elii [εrεlíy] ‘yesterday’er a elȩchang [εrέlǝɂaŋ] ‘now, today’er a Belau [εrbέlaw] ‘in/of Palau’

In the examples of 40, the vowel of ȩr is usually not reduced andis therefore pronounced as [ε].

The word ȩr is spelled as a separate word in the followingspecial expressions:

(41) ngar ȩr ngii [ŋarŋíy] ‘there is’mla ȩr ngii [mlarŋíy] ‘there was’mo ȩr ngii [morŋíy] ‘there will be’mochu ȩr ngii [moɂurŋíy] ‘there is about to be’

In the first two expressions of 41, we find the very commonPalauan verbs ngar ‘is (located)’ and mla ‘was (located)’. Theseverbs also appear in sentences like the following:

(42) a. A Droteo a ngar ȩr a stoang.‘Droteo is at the store.’

b. A John a mla ȩr a Guam.‘John was in Guam.’

c. A Droteo ng ngar ȩr ker?‘Where is Droteo?’


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d. A Toki ng mla ȩr ker?‘Where was Toki?’

b. In order to show that a noun refers to more than onehuman being, we attach rȩ to the beginning of that noun. Forexample, while chad ‘person’ refers to one human being, rȩchad‘people’ refers to two or more. Other examples of this contrastinclude ngalȩk ‘child’—rȩngalȩk ‘children’, sensei ‘teacher’—rȩsensei ‘teachers’, sȩchȩlik ‘my friend’—rȩsȩchȩlik ‘myfriends’, and ekȩbil ‘girl’—rekȩbil ‘girls’. As the last exampleshows, if the word in question begins with a vowel, then wesimply attach r instead of rȩ. Some sentences containing pluralwords like rȩchad ‘people’ are now given:

(43) a. Ak ulȩmes ȩr a rȩngalȩk.‘I was watching the children.’

b. Ng delmȩrab ȩr a rȩsensei.‘It’s the teachers’ room.’

c. A rȩlluich ȩl chad a mlad.‘Twenty people died.’

d. Ak milstȩrir a rua Toki.‘I saw Toki and her friends.’

c. The word ȩl is used in many kinds of constructions torelate one word to another. Some of the most common usagesare illustrated below.

1. With demonstratives, which are used to point outpeople, animals, or things:

(44) tia ȩl klalo ‘this thing’se ȩl hong ‘that book’tirka ȩl chad ‘these people’aika ȩl charm ‘these animals’

In all of the examples of 44, we do not pronounce the ȩ of ȩlbecause a vowel-final word precedes. Where have we seen asimilar rule of pronunciation?


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2. With numbers, which occur in many different series, de-pending on what is being counted:

(45) ta ȩl chad ‘one person’chimo ȩl kluk ‘one dollar’eru ȩl klok ‘two o’clock’tȩluo ȩl oluchȩs ‘one pencil’tȩruich mȩ a ta ȩl chad ‘eleven people’dart ȩl kluk ‘one hundred dollars’euid ȩl klok ‘seven o’clock’tȩruich ȩl oluchȩs ‘ten pencils’

In some of the examples of 45, the ȩ of ȩl is not pronounced,while in others it is. What factors determine this rule of pronun-ciation?

3. With various kinds of modifiers, which describe or qualifysome other word:

(46) elȩcha ȩl sils ‘today’s weather’mȩkȩlȩkolt ȩl ralm ‘cold water’bek ȩl tutau ‘every morning’mȩkngit ȩl chad ‘bad person’ungil ȩl

Palauan Reference Grammar · 2019-06-06 · Contents Contents Dedication viii Preface xix...

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Transcript of Palauan Reference Grammar · 2019-06-06 · Contents Contents Dedication viii Preface xix...