Proto-Torres–Banks (PTB) is the reconstructed ancestor of the seventeen languages of the Torres and Banks Islands of Vanuatu. Like all indigenous languages of Vanuatu, it belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian languages.
More specifically, it is the shared ancestor of the following modern languages (ranked geographically, from NW to SE): Hiw, Lo-Toga, Lehali, Löyöp, Volow, Mwotlap, Lemerig, Vera'a, Vurës, Mwesen, Mota, Nume, Dorig, Koro, Olrat, Lakon, and Mwerlap.
Reconstruction Proto-Torres–Banks, as reconstructed with the comparative method from the attested daughter languages, evidently represented an early, mutually intelligible chain of Oceanic dialects in the northern part of Vanuatu starting from 1000 BCE after Lapita settlement of the archipelago, as evidenced by the pattern of loss and retention of the Proto-Oceanic phoneme *R, which merged with *r in the early history of the North-Central Vanuatu dialect chain. It therefore is not a "true" proto-language in the sense of an undifferentiated language ancestral to all Torres–Banks languages, but rather a part of the early North-Central Vanuatu linkage with some dialectal variation across different island groups, before they eventually disintegrated into mutually unintelligible languages.François (2011).
Elements of the proto-language have been proposed by linguist Alexandre François: vowels and consonants, personal pronouns,François (2009, 2016). space system,François (2015). vocabulary..
Phonology Phoneme inventory Proto-Torres–Banks had 5 phonemic vowels, /i e a o u/,François (2005). and 16 consonants: {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |+Vowels ! ! Front ! Back |- !Close | align=center | * | align=center | * |- !Close-mid | align=center | * | align=center | * |- !Open | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| *
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |+Consonants ! colspan="2" | !Labiovelar !Bilabial !Alveolar !Dorsal |- ! colspan="2" |Nasal
! rowspan="2" |Stop !voiceless
!prenasalized
! colspan="2" |Fricative
! colspan="2" |Approximant
|*, *
Following the loss of final POc consonants (or dialectal addition of a paragogic vowel), syllable structure in Proto-Torres–Banks was open, i.e. (C)V with optional consonant: e.g. POc *quraŋ "crayfish" > PTB *ura ~ *uraŋi; POc *matiruʀ "to sleep" > PTB *matiru; POc *laŋit "sky" > *laŋi "wind". No descendant language preserves this situation today, but it can still be found in other related languages such as Gela and Uneapa.
Stress fell on the penultimate syllable. Following the pervasive loss of final vowels, descendant languages usually have stress on the final syllable. Vera'a and Mota have lost stress entirely.
Evolution of vowels In all of the descendant languages except for Mota, vowel hybridization occurred (a form of metaphony or umlaut). Later, a process of vowel deletion took place whereby every second vowel, being unstressed, was dropped: this resulted in an increase in the number of vowel phonemes – a process known as transphonologization. For example, *laŋi "wind" > , , giving rise to phonemes /ɔ/ and /ɛ/ respectively.This syllable-reduction process can be dated sometime within the last 1000 years, as evidenced by Polynesian loans such as /kumaj/, /komar/ < *kumara "sweet potato"; that vegetable, together with its name (originally, a likely loan from languages of South America), was brought to Vanuatu by the relatively recent expansion that gave rise to Polynesian outliers. Words which initially had 4 syllables were reduced to 2 syllables (e.g. POc *RapiRapi "evening" > *raβiˈraβi > /rɛβrɛβ/ ); *CVCV disyllables were reduced to a single CVC syllable (e.g. POc *roŋoR "to hear" > *roŋo > /rɔŋ/); words with 3 syllables ended up with 2, including *CVCVV which became *CVCV (e.g. POc *panua "island, land" > *βanua > /βanʊ/).
In Mota, only single high vowels were dropped, evident even in the earliest records: e.g. *tolu "three" > /tol/. In the 1880s, Codrington reported cases when Mota had preserved high vowels (e.g. /siwo/ "down"; /tolu/ "three"), which have since disappeared from today's Mota (e.g. /swo/;. /tol/).
In Hiw, Lo-Toga and Vera'a, the final vowel was retained as a schwa when it was originally lower than the one under stress:. e.g. POc *ikan "fish" > *íɣa > /ɪɣə/, /iɣə/. In Vera'a, the schwa became an echo vowel, e.g. POc *pulan "moon" > *βula > *βulə > /fulʊ/; that final vowel in Vera'a can disappear in phrase-medial position, yielding the form /ful/ for 'moon'.
In trisyllabic words, the first vowel tends to be deleted or copied after the second vowel, with the exception of Mota and Lakon, which preserve them. Thus, POc *panua "island, land" > *βanua > /βanʊ/, but /βʊnʊ/.
Examples of reconstructions
+reconstructionmeaningreflexesProto-Oceanic etymonsource*[n]iᵑgo‘2sg. pronoun, thou’ (1) *iᵑgo > /ikə/ (2) *niᵑgo > /nikə/, /nɛk/, /niŋ/, /nɪŋ/, /nɪk/, /næk/, /nikɪ/, /nɪk/, /nɪk/, /niko/, /nik/, /nɪk/, /nɪk/, /nɪk/, /nɪk/, /nɛ͡ak/ *[i]ko[e] "thou"François 2016: 33*lolomarani‘wise, intelligent; wisdom, knowledge’ /jɵjməg͡ʟen/ ‘smart; to know’, /lolmərɛn/ ‘smart; to know’, /lɛlməjæn/, /lɔlmɛjɛn/, /lɔlmɛjɛn/, /lɔlmɛjɛn/, /lɪlmɛrɛn/, /lʊlmaran/, /lʊlʊmɛrɛn/, /lɔlmɛrɛn/, /lolomaran/, /llɔmraːn/, /lɔlmaːræn/, /lɔlmɛrɛn/*lalom "inside" + *ma-Raqani "daylight"François 2013: 208*rowo‘dash, escape; out; seawards’ /g͡ʟow/, /row/, /jɔw/, /jɔw/, /jɔ/, /jɔw/, /rɔw/, /rʊw/, /rʊw/, /rɔw/, /rowo/, /rɔw/ ‘dash+’, /rɔw/ ‘dash+’, /rɔw/ ‘dash+’, /rɔw/ ‘dash+’, /rɔw/ ‘dash+’, /rɔw/ *Ropok ‘dash, fly’François 2015: 191*salaɣoro‘secret; secret meeting place in the bush for men during initiation rituals’ /hɔləɣor/, /n-halɣɛj/, /n-salɣoj/, /n-halɣoj/, /na-halɣoj/, /n-sɒlɣœr/, /salɣʊr/, /salɣʊr/, /salɣɔr/, /salaɣoro/, /salɔwɔr/, /salɣɔr/, /salɣɔr/, /salwɔj/, /salwɔː/*jalan "road" + *koro "obstruct"François 2005: 499*s[i,u]wo‘down; northwest’ (1) *siwo > /hiw/ "Hiw (island)", /iw/, /siwo/ (modern /swo/) (2) *suwo > /ʉw/, /hɔw/, /sʊw/, /hʊ/, /hʊw/, /sʊw/, /suwʊ/, /sʊw/, /sʊw/, /hʊw/, /sʊw/*sipo "down"François 2015: 190*totoɣale‘notch (wood), carve an effigy; effigy, image’ /nɔ-tɔtɣal/, /ʔɔɣal/, /ʔʊɣal/, /tʊtɣi͡al/, /totoɣale/, /tɔtɣæl/, /nɛ-tɛtɣɛl/*toto(k) "cut" + *kale "deceive"François 2013: 198
Regular sound changes from Proto-Oceanic The historical sound changes that took place from Proto-Oceanic (POc) to Proto-Torres–Banks (PTB) were intricate, yet largely regular. Some have been reconstructed explicitly, whether on vowels or on consonants;. others are implicit in published lists of lexical reconstructions.
Pervasive phonological sound changes include: The loss of all final POc consonants, such as POc *manuk "bird" > *manu. This sound change resulted in the language having only open syllables.Cases such as POc *saqat "bad" > /sæt/ can be explained by the addition of a paragogic vowel in (François 2005: 479-480); thus POc *saqat "bad" > *saqat-i > *sati > /sæt/. The labialization of POc *p, *ᵐb and *m before *o or *u, resulting in *w (< *βʷ), *ᵐbʷ and *mʷ (especially in Torres and northern Banks languages).
Considering each POc proto-phoneme sequentially, the reflexes can be listed in the following table.