Natügu (locally spelled Natqgu), formerly known as Santa Cruz, is the main language spoken on the island of Nendö or 'Santa Cruz', in the Solomon Islands. It is one of the three languages of that island, together with Nalögo and Nanggu.
Description Name The name (new orth. ) comes from , literally "our language" – from "language, word" + "1st + 2nd person augmented enclitic").
Genetic affiliation Until the beginning of the 21st century, it was widely believed that Natügu was a Papuan language. In the 2000s however, it was shown to be a member of the Oceanic language family (in turn part of the Austronesian language family), like the rest of the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages.
Dialects Dialects of Natügu are Bënwë (Banua), Londai, Malo. Speakers of most dialects understand Lwowa and Mbanua well.
Nalögo, once considered a dialect of Natügu, is now recognised as a separate language.
Phonology
Consonants Natügu has 14 consonant phonemes. They are indicated here, with the orthography in : LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarLabial-velarStopvoiceless prenasalised Nasal Fricative Approximant
Prenasalized stops can optionally be realized as plain voiced consonants.
Vowels +Oral vowelsFrontCentralBackCloseClose-midNear-openOpen
+Nasal vowelsFrontCentralBackCloseClose-midNear-openOpen
Orthography The Natügu language has two orthographies. The old orthography uses diacritics to mark vowel quality and nasalization while the new orthography uses no diacritics. The new orthography was developed in 1994, motivated by concerns about the difficulty of reading and typesetting the old orthography.
+ConsonantsGraphemePhonemebdgh—jklmnpstvwy
+VowelsGrapheme (old)Grapheme (new)Phonemeaaeeiioouuâcüqöräxëz◌̃◌'
In the old orthography, nasal vowels are represented with a tilde over the vowel letter. In the new orthography, nasal vowels are represented with a straight apostrophe after the vowel letter.
Grammar Most of the information below comes from , but is adapted to the older orthography to aid reader intuition.
Syntax Natügu employs a transitivity-based clause system that distinguishes between intransitive, transitive and semitransitive clauses. Intransitive clauses contain a single core argument, the subject (S). When the subject is a noun phrase the word order is SV, but this changes to VS when the subject is a pronominal enclitic. Transitive clauses feature two core arguments, the agent (A) and object (O), with an unmarked word order of VAO. In these clauses the agent can be a nominal argument or an enclitic, and either the agent or the object may be fronted for discourse purposes. Semitransitive clauses are morphologically intransitive but syntactically transitive, placing focus on the action whilst using generic objects. Subordinate clauses and most peripheral arguments occur post-verbally.
The language utilises verbless clauses to express identity, possession and existence. Non-verbal lexemes serve as predicates in these constructions, whilst location is expressed with one of two placeholder verbs meaning 'stay' or 'live', chosen according to whether the subject is animate or inanimate.
Questions may be polar, content or tag questions. Polar questions share the same morphological structure as declarative clauses but are distinguished by a rising intonation contour, whereas content questions place question words such as 'who' or 'what' at the beginning of the clause. Standard negation is expressed by a circumfix bracketing the verb complex, with the prefix at the left edge and the suffix at the right edge. A further circumfix pairs with the aspect enclitic 'not yet'; in this construction the postverbal is absent.
Complex syntax includes complement clauses, relative clauses, adverbial clauses and coordinate clauses. Complement clauses may be finite, introduced by the subordinator , or non-finite, expressed through nominalisation. Relative clauses are introduced by or, when the modified noun has already been established in the discourse, by the demonstrative ; they follow the noun phrase they modify. Adverbial clauses include temporal, reason, purpose, conditional, precautionary and concessive types. Coordination is achieved with conjunctions such as 'and', 'but' and the disjunctive particles or 'or', or through simple juxtaposition of clauses.
Verbs Natügu verbs are categorised into four main classes based on their interaction with valency-changing morphology, the semantic distinction between stative and dynamic verbs, and the semantic role of intransitive subjects. The classes are intransitive, transitive, inherently semitransitive and ambitransitive. Intransitive verbs are subdivided into those that take no transitive form, those that can be causativised with the prefix and those that take the transitiviser . Transitive verbs include a class that permits no transitivity modification and a class that takes the middle prefix to form semitransitive or depatientive constructions. Inherently semitransitive verbs require the transitiviser for the object to be specific rather than generic, whilst ambitransitive verbs (such as 'open') can take either transitive or intransitive subjects without additional derivation.
The verb complex consists of a central verb core surrounded by up to four pre-core and 21 post-core modifier slots. The core itself may be a simple root or a complex stem formed through compounding. The pre-core slots house an aspect proclitic, a negation prefix, a mood prefix and either the causative prefix or the middle prefix . The post-core slots accommodate manner, degree, qualifier, quantifier and temporal adverbs; geometric directionals encoding 'up', 'down', 'in' and 'out'; the personal directionals 'hither' and 'yon'; core applicatives; valency-changing suffixes including the transitiviser , the reflexive and the reciprocal ; enclitic aspect markers; the peripheral applicative ; subject and object enclitics; and the second part of the negative circumfix.
Natügu possesses a productive system of valency-changing morphology with 16 attested morphemes. The causative prefix adds a causer argument to intransitive or ambitransitive verbs. The middle prefix is the primary valency-reducing device, forming semitransitive constructions with generic objects or depatientive constructions in which the object is syntactically absent. The transitiviser licenses a specific object for intransitive and inherently semitransitive verbs, but also functions as a pluractional marker on transitive verbs, indicating a plurality of objects acted upon in a dispersed or scattered fashion. The reflexive and reciprocal both decrease valency when added to transitive verbs, shifting person marking to intransitive forms. Natügu also has an agentless passive, formed by the prefix , or the realis third-person augmented portmanteau prefix , appearing without an accompanying third-person augmented subject enclitic; the former object is promoted to subject position.
Tense–aspect–mood Natügu lacks morphological tense, relying instead on free temporal adverbs, such as 'now', 'yesterday', 'today' and 'long ago' or on contextual cues to establish temporal reference.
Aspect is encoded by proclitics in the pre-core slot of the verb complex and by enclitics in the post-core slot. The proclitic marks perfective aspect, indicating that an action has begun, whilst marks imperfective aspect, indicating an ongoing or uncompleted action that may also carry a future sense. A third proclitic, the apprehensive 'lest', nearly always appears in the fixed phrase 'because lest' followed by a realis mood prefix. The post-core aspect enclitics are 'change of state', 'completive', 'still' and 'not yet'. The change-of-state enclitic is particularly versatile: with telic verbs it signals a resulting state; with atelic verbs it indicates a completed event; in combination with the imperfective proclitic it conveys imminence with punctual verbs; and in negative contexts it carries the sense of 'not anymore'.
Mood is marked in the pre-core slot by the realis prefix and its third-person augmented counterpart , which denote events in the actual world and serve to track the primary storyline in narrative discourse. The irrealis prefix covers future, hypothetical, intentional, hortative, imperative and conditional contexts. The aspect proclitics and mood prefixes typically occur in semantically compatible pairings: perfective with realis () and imperfective with irrealis (); other combinations are attested but carry specialised meanings.
Nouns Natügu nouns lack case and number marking, with their syntactic role primarily determined by word order. The language organises nouns along four parameters:
Count nouns vs. mass nouns: Mass nouns represent uncounted quantities and take the indefinite plural marker 'some'. Count nouns can co-occur with numeral quantifiers. Older speakers rely on context or demonstrative modifiers to indicate plurality, though younger generations have begun attaching the plural suffix to count nouns, possibly through influence from English. Common nouns vs. proper nouns: Proper names of people often carry gender-specific prefixes, with marking males and marking females; these prefixes are typically followed by a verb to form attributive names. Animate vs. inanimate nouns: This distinction governs verb selection. The verb 'stay/live' is for animate subjects and for inanimate subjects; likewise 'die' is for animate and for inanimate subjects. Plants are classified as inanimate. Direct vs. indirect possession: Directly possessed nouns, chiefly body parts and most kinship terms, take a pronominal enclitic attached directly to the noun without intervening morphology. Indirectly possessed nouns require an intervening genitive or possessive classifier between the possessed noun and its possessor.
Natügu employs seven strategies to derive complex nouns, including participant nominalisation using the subordinator , action nominalisation using the circumfix and the toponymic prefix , which derives a noun denoting people associated with a place or group. All derived and complex nouns exhibit indirect possession.
Possession The possessive system distinguishes between direct possession, two genitive forms and eight or nine possessive classifiers. The free genitive and its phonologically conditioned variant encode relationships of content, location and property without implying ownership. The possessive classifiers encode closer or more specific relationships, as summarised below.
+ Natügu possessive classifiers Classifier Semantic domain Handheld and movable possessions; also used as a generic classifier Betel nut and related items (leaf, lime, container) Drinkable items including wet fruits such as papaya and watermelon Edible items excluding those classified as drinkable Beings under the possessor's care or responsibility; also creative works such as songs and paintings Immovable property and time at a fixed point (buildings, land, gardens) ~ Fire, firewood, blankets, mats and items associated with hearth and home Things closely associated with or intrinsically part of the possessor Thoughts, heart and desires; co-occurs only with words denoting mental or emotional states
A noun is not fixed to a single classifier; the choice of classifier reflects the nature of the relationship in context. For example 'knife' occurs with when used for eating, when used for wet fruit and when used for general bush work.
Pronouns Natügu has two main sets of person and number enclitics. Set I (primary) is normally used on verbs to signal subjects and third-person objects. Set II (secondary) replaces Set I when marking subjects following the peripheral applicative and in passive clauses, and also serves as the basis for free pronouns and possessive constructions.