Aneityum or Anejom̃ (also spelled Anejom, and formerly Aneiteum, Aneityumese) is an Oceanic language spoken by 900 people () on Aneityum Island, Vanuatu. It is the only indigenous language of Aneityum.
Names The alternate names for Aneityum are Anejom̃, Anejom, Aneiteum, Aneiteumese, Aneytum and Annatom.
Classification Anejom̃ is part of the Austronesian language family, and is part of the large subgroup of Oceanic languages. Anejom̃ falls under the Southern Oceanic Languages subgroup, and more specifically Southern Vanuatuan Languages. It constitutes its own separate branch of Southern Vanuatuan languages. While Anejom̃ is now considered to be only one language, some historical reports have suggested that Anejom̃ might have consisted of two very distinct dialects. Its closest relatives are preliminarily thought to be more closely related to the languages of Tanna (e.g. Kwamera, South-West Tanna, Lenakel) than Erromango languages.
Geography
The island of Aneityum is the southernmost inhabited island of the nation of Vanuatu. It is closest to the islands of Tanna and Futuna. The island's geographic location made Anejom̃ develop in isolation. The first speakers of the language are believed to have lived on hillsides near coasts in order to access resources. However, due to land degradation and population pressure, the speakers moved to the valleys.
History Aneityum is thought to have been settled around 874 BCE ± 60 years by people coming over from Tanna. Original settlers (and speakers of the language) are thought to have lived on hillsides near the coasts in order to access resources from the ocean and land. However, the combination of land degradation and population forced the Aneityumese to move onto valley flats instead.
The original political system was like much of Melanesia; it was composed of multiple chiefs (natimarid) ruling over many chiefdoms (neclau). According to oral tradition, the island had two chiefdoms but they split to then form seven chiefdoms each "further divided into a number of districts between fifty and sixty in number".
The first contact with Europeans was in 1830, when the brig Alpha landed in Aneityum with hopes of establishing a sandalwood trading business.
The population of the Aneityumese has greatly declined over the years (along with the number of speakers); however, the population has seen a bit of a resurgence in the present. Most of the population was decimated by two major epidemics in the 1830s and 1840s and never fully recovered as can be seen below: Aneityum populationPre-Contact9,000-20,000190543518304,600-5,800191732018543,800192622018652,100193619318781,27919471911886930195724418975271967313
Church presence Like much of the rest of Melanesia, the church has played an important role in language ideology on Aneityum. The first missionaries to land on the island were Samoan Presbyterians who arrived in 1841. After them followed European Presbyterian missionaries who established themselves in 1848. With the large missionary presence on the island, many schools were founded to spread the message of Christianity. In these schools, the classroom was mainly conducted in Anejom̃, however numeracy was conducted in English.Lynch, John Dominic. Church, State and Language in Melanesia: An Inaugural Lecture. Papua New Guinea: U of Papua New Guinea, 1979. The missionary presence on the island was so prevalent that the island was considered the "first successfully missionized island in Melanesia" and housed the headquarters of the Presbyterian Mission to the New Hebrides.
The missions on Aneityum promoted the use of English.
Colonialization Vanuatu came under joint British and French rule in 1887, which then became formalized in 1906 where Vanuatu became known as the "Anglo-French Condominium". Colonialization along with the big mission presence on the island led to the languages of French and English to become prestige languages. Other languages of Vanuatu also became prestigious (such as Nguna) because these language were chosen by missionaries to spread their teachings. With prolonged contact with English speakers, another language also arose: Bislama. Bislama, a pidgin of English, is now an extremely widely used language and has had a huge role in language change within Anejom̃.
Phonology and orthography
Phonemes Anejom̃ has 5 vowels and 20 or 21 consonants. The sound [ʔ] is sometimes counted as phoneme.
+ Anejom̃ ConsonantsLabial-VelarLabialDentalAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalPlosive()AffricateNasalFricative TapLateralSemivowel
Vowel and consonant length is contrastive in this language and is shown in orthography by writing the vowel or consonant twice.
+ Anejom̃ VowelsFrontCentralBackshort longshort longshort longHighMidLow
Orthography Anejom̃ was never a written language and so traditionally did not have an orthography. The first orthography was made by the missionary John Inglis in 1882. It was considered to be a fairly good orthography of its time (having a one-to-one correspondence between letters and phonemes); however, it did contain several key problems. It did not distinguish between /pʷ/ and /p/ and /mʷ/ and /m/. The phoneme /ɲ/ was not always written as a separate letter from other nasal phonemes. The allophone of /e/, [ə], was written confusingly as "eu". Palatal off-glide before a palatal consonant was denoted as an "i". Vowel and consonant length were not represented consistently in the orthography. A new orthography more accepted by Anejom̃ speakers now is shown below. PhonemeOrthographic RepresentationShortLongpʷp̃p̃p̃ppppttttkkkktʃjjjffffθ dddsssshhhhvvvvɣcccmʷm̃ m̃m̃mmmmnnnnɲñññŋgggllllɾrrrwwwwjyyyɪiiiɛeeeaaaaɔoooʊuuu
Allophones
Glottal stop The moderately phonemic glottal stop is an allophone of /h/ when it occurs before a consonant. It also occurs as an allophone before vowels that occur in the word initial position.
Nasals The phoneme /ɲ/ becomes [j̃] after a high vowel.
Voicing Stops and affricates in Anejom̃ change in voicing depending on where they occur between segments as described and illustrated below. Between vowels, labial stops become voiced. Other stops (and affricates) are partially voiced. Between voiced segments, all stops are variably voiced. The affricate /tʃ/ is variably voiced between voiced segments too. However, when it occurs before a nasal segment it becomes [c]. When these stops occur word initially, they are always slightly aspirated. The affricate /tʃ/ on the other hand is not aspirated but often takes on variable voicing. When these stops and affricates don't occur between vowels or voiced segments they stay as their underlying form. For example, /p/ becomes [p] and /k/ becomes [k]. When these stops occur in final position, the phonemes don't change. However, the affricate /tʃ/ becomes [c], but can also be heard as [tʃ] in free variation.
Liquids /ɾ/ can be heard as [r] in slower speech.
Vowels Vowel sounds are more tense when occurring as a long vowel.p. 17 Single vowel sounds /ɪ ʊ/ occur as tense [i u] in word-final position. /e o/ occur as [e̝ o̝] when preceding a high vowel /i u/ of the same frontness or roundness.p. 18 /i e/ occur as centralized [ɨ ə] before and after /ɣ/.p. 19 /a/ very often assimilates before a following high vowel, becoming [æ] or [ɛ] before /i/, and [ɒ] or [ɔ] before /u/.
Morphology
Pronouns There are three types of pronouns in Anejom̃: personal, demonstrative, and interrogative pronouns.
Personal pronouns Anejom̃'s personal pronouns distinguish: three persons, with a further distinction of inclusive and exclusive in first person non-singular four numbers (singular, dual, trial, and plural) three cases (focal, object, and possessive)"
Focal pronouns + Focal pronouns Singular Dual Trial Plural 1st person inclusive --- akajau akataj akaja exclusive añak ajamrau ajamtaj ajama 2nd person aek*, aak ajourau ajoutaj ajowa 3rd person aen*, aan aarau aattaj aara
*The focal pronouns aek and aen are only used in writing or when a speaker speaks slowly. Most of the time the pronouns aak and aan, respectively, are used instead (and are generally pronounced with short vowels instead of long vowels). Below is an example of a focal pronoun.
Object pronouns + Object pronouns Singular Dual Trial Plural 1st person inclusive --- cajau cataj caja exclusive ñak camrau camtaj cama 2nd person yic**, -c courau coutaj cowa 3rd person yin**, -n rau ettaj ra
Object pronouns are free morphemes and occur after verbs and certain "case-marking prepositions" as seen below.
**The 2SG and 3SG object pronouns normally occur as yic and yin, however when a vowel precedes these pronouns then they change to the suffixes -c and -n respectively.
Possessive pronouns + Possessive pronouns Singular Dual Trial Plural 1st person inclusive --- -jau -jau -ja exclusive -k -mrau -mrau -ma 2nd person -m̃ -mirau -mirau -mia 3rd person -n -rau -rau -ra
Possessive pronouns occur as suffixes and can be attached to "directly possessed nouns and possessive markers, some case-markers, and to members of one sub-class of verbs". See below:
Interrogative pronouns There are two interrogative pronouns in Anejom̃: di ('who') and panid and its less widely used alternate, panida ('which').
However, 'di is "inherently singular" and requires a coordinate phrase with im, as seen in the example here, to express plurality.
Panid and panida can only be used to refer to inanimate objects.
Demonstrative pronouns Demonstrative pronouns also have singular, dual, trial and plural forms like personal pronouns (see below). + Demonstrative pronounsSingularDualTrialPluralProximateniñkinii, niñrañkiraaki, raatijiraakijiñkijiijiñ, jiiIntermediatenaanainaarañkajeknaaDistantnaikourañkoujeknaikouAnaphoricyiikiyiiraakijiiki [recent]jekeñ [distant] In Anejom̃, demonstrative pronouns can also take the suffix -sak which denotes that the speaker is "pointing at or in some other way indicating the location of the thing referred to."
Nouns Anejom̃ has several categories for nouns: temporal, locative, personal, obligatorily possessed and optionally possessed nouns. The latter two categories (obligatorily possessed and optionally possessed nouns), are further distinguished based on animacy (as seen below). NounsTemporalLocativePersonalObligatorily possessedAnimateInanimateOptionally possessedAnimateInanimate
Temporal nouns Examples of common temporal nouns can be seen below. Temporal noun (Anejom̃)English definitionkounowituwunuhup̃anipiñtodayimrañtomorrowiyenevyesterdayinvidtwo days from today (past or future)hovidthree days from today (past or future)
Locative nouns Locative nouns in Anejom̃ do not need the case marker "a" to occur in front of it as shown in the example below.
Locative nouns also include the following words: Anejom̃Englishijiñisaboveijhououtsideitohoufar inlanditacbehindup̃oson land, in a clear place
Personal nouns Personal nouns include kinship terms as well as names of people.
Obligatorily possessed nouns These nouns must "be marked as being possessed by some other noun or pronoun", which tends to be marked by suffixation. Most of the obligatorily possessed nouns are kinship terms.
An example of direct suffixation can be seen in the examples below.
There are some nouns that do not take direct suffixation but rather use possessive markers such as the word for "child", "nephew", "niece", and "sister," to name a few.
Optionally possessed nouns Unlike obligatorily possessed nouns, these nouns do not, or do not have to, take possession markers.
Animate and inanimate Nouns Anejom̃ has a distinction between animate and inanimate nouns which is further divided into obligatorily possessed and optionally possessed nouns.
Animate nouns are usually marked by using the subject marker "a" for singular and the prefix "elpu-" for plural.
Pluralization of the word meaning 'man' to 'men' seen below.
natam̃añ → elpu-atam̃añ