Ske (or Seke) is an endangered language of south-western Pentecost island in Vanuatu. Ske is an Oceanic language (a branch of the Austronesian language family).
The Ske area comprises fourteen small villages centred on Baravet in south-central Pentecost, from Liavzendam (Levizendam) in the north to Hotwata in the south and extending inland to Vanliamit. Historically the language's area extended to parallel areas of the east coast, but this part of the island is now depopulated.
Due to intermarriage between language areas, an increasing number of people in Ske-speaking villages now speak Bislama as a first language, and Ske is no longer being actively transmitted to children. A closely related neighbouring language, Sowa, has already been totally displaced by Apma.
The number of Ske speakers is estimated at 300. The widely reported figure of 600 is probably an overestimate, since not everybody in the Ske area is fluent in the language.
There is no significant dialectal variation within modern Ske, although there are noticeable differences between the Ske of older and younger speakers. Doltes, the extinct dialect of Hotwata village, is sometimes regarded as a Ske dialect, but appears to have been closer to Sa.
There is no local tradition of writing in Ske, and until recently the language was virtually undocumented. However, linguist Kay Johnson has written a PhD thesis on the language, including a sketch grammar. Prior to her arrival, the only records of Ske were short vocabulary lists collected by David Walsh in the 1960s, Catriona Hyslop in 2001 and Andrew Gray in 2007.
Phonology Ske notably drops unstressed vowels. This has resulted in a language rich in consonants, in contrast to related languages such as Raga. Due to the presence of consonant clusters within syllables and other phonological features not typical of the area's languages, speakers of neighbouring languages consider Ske difficult to speak and learn.
Geminate consonants occur where two identical consonants have been brought together by the historical loss of an intervening vowel, for example in (compare Sowa ). Geminates contrast with single consonants word initially, e.g., and .
Unlike neighbouring languages such as Apma, Ske permits a variety of voiced consonants to occur at the end of syllables, although when they occur at the end of an utterance they are often followed by an 'echo' of the previous vowel. For example, is often pronounced .
Stress typically occurs on the final syllable of a word.
Consonants + Ske consonants Bilabial Alveolar Velar Glottal Plain Labio-velarized Nasal Plosive Voiceless Voiced Fricative Voiceless () Voiced Approximant Trill Voiced plosives are prenasalized, contrasting with voiceless plosives. For example, contrasts with . Prenasalization also occurs across word boundaries (sandhi) when the previous word ends in a vowel. For example, becomes . Verb-initial become . , younger speakers are re-analyzing as . For example, older speakers say for , while younger speakers say . Bilabial consonants lose their velarization before a consonant or at the end of a word. becomes before back vowels. only occurs in loanwords. Some speakers pronounce as an affricate. is pronounced before voiced phonemes.
Vowels + Ske monophthongs Front Central Back Close Close-mid Open-mid Open
is phonetically after most consonants (generally not after ) in a stressed syllable.
+ Ske diphthongs Falling Rising
Orthography Kay Johnson worked with the Ske community to develop the following orthography: + Ske orthography Phoneme Grapheme a b bw d é; ie e q g h i k l m mw n ng ó o p pw r s t u v vw w z
Some older sources write as or .
Grammar Basic word order in Ske is subject–verb–object.
Pronouns Personal pronouns are distinguished by person and number. They are not distinguished by gender. The basic pronouns are:
singular plural 1st person exclusive inclusive 2nd person 3rd person
Nouns Nouns in Ske are generally not preceded by articles. Plurality is indicated by placing the pronoun or a number after the noun.
Nouns may be either free, or directly possessed. Directly possessed nouns are suffixed to indicate whom an item belongs to. For example:
Possession may also be indicated by the use of possessive classifiers, separate words that occur before or after the noun and take possessive suffixes. These classifiers are:
for general possessions ( ) for things that are cared for, such as crops and livestock ( ) for things to be eaten ( ) for things to be drunk ( ) and for buildings ( ) for fire ( ) for fruits that are cut open ( ) for associations, over which the possessor has no control ( )
The possessive suffixes are as follows:
singular plural 1st person exclusive inclusive 2nd person 3rd person Generic
A verb may be transformed into a noun by the addition of a nominalising suffix :
(verb) (noun)
Modifiers generally come after a noun:
Verbs Verbs are preceded by markers providing information on the subject and the tense, aspect and mood of an action. These markers differ substantially between older and younger speakers; the newer forms are in brackets below.
Person Subject marker -imperfective (present tense) Subject marker -perfective (past tense) Subject marker -irrealis (future tense) English 1st person singular mwa ni mwade or mwan "I" 2nd person singular kmwe (mwi) ki (ti) ti (de ti) "you" (singular) 3rd person singular m[w] or mwe a de "he" / "she" / "it" 1st person dual (inclusive) ta kra (tra) tra (de tra) "we" (you and I, two of us) 1st person dual (exclusive) mwamra mwara (mwamra) mwadra "we" (another and I) 2nd person dual mwira or mwria kria (dria) dria (de dria) "you" (two) 3rd person dual mra ara dra "they" (two) 1st person plural (inclusive) pe kve (tve) tve (de tve) "we" (you and I) 1st person plural (exclusive) mwabe mwave (mwabe) mwadve "we" (others and I) 2nd person plural bi kvie (dvie) dvie (de dvie) "you" (plural) 3rd person plural be ave dve "they"
There is a pattern of verb-consonant mutation whereby v at the start of a verb changes to b, and vw to bw. This mutation occurs in imperfective aspect (present tense), and in irrealis mood (future tense):
ni va = I went mwa ba = I am going mwade ba = I will go
(Among a few older speakers there is also mutation of z to d, but most Ske speakers today use only the d forms.)
Hypothetical phrases are marked with mó:
ni mó umné = I should do it
Negative phrases are preceded by kare ("not") or a variant:
kare ni umné = I didn't do it
Transitive and intransitive verb forms are distinguished. Transitive verbs are commonly followed or suffixed with -né:
mwa róh = I move mwa róh né vet = I move the stone
Ske makes extensive use of stative verbs for descriptive purposes.
Ske has a copular verb, vé or bé.
Verbs in Ske can be linked together in serial verb constructions.
Sample phrases
English Ske (traditional) Ske (younger speakers) Good morning Vangren ambis Vangren ambis Good day Ren ambis Ren ambis Good evening / Good night Buong ambis Biong ambis Where are you going? Kmwe mba embéh? Mwi mba embéh? I'm going to... Mwa mba... Mwa mba... Where have you come from? Ki me embéh? Ti me embéh? I've come from... Ni me... Ni me... Where is it? Mdu embéh? Mdu embéh? It's here Mdu ene Mdu ene Come here! Ti me ene! Ti me ene! Go away! Ti suk! Ti suk! What's your name? Siam ne sien? Siam ne sien? My name is... Siaq ne... Siaq ne... Where are you from? Iq azó ze embéh? Iq azó ze embéh? I am from... Nou azó ze... Nou azó ze... How much? / How many? Avih? Avih? one alvwal alvial two aru aru three aziol aziol four aviet aviet five alim alim Thank you Kmwe mbariev Mwi mbariev It's just fine Bis knge Bis knge
Notes
References
External links The Languages of Pentecost Island - further information on Ske ELAR archive of Ske (Seke) language documentation materials