I

ArticlesVocatives in Amele,
Papua New Guinea

Masahiko Nose

Shiga University / Professor

034

Introduction

Every language has grammar and lexicon
used for day to day communication. Languages
also have address terms and vocatives. Address
terms specify family members and relatives,
such as father, mother, uncle, etc. A vocative
identifies a person on the spot. Vocatives areused independently, as in “Father!” and “You!”[cf. Sonnenhauser & Hanna (2013), McWhorter (2013) and Zwicky (1974)].
This study is concerned with the vocative
forms in the Amele language spoken in Papua
New Guinea. Amele is one of the Trans-New
Guinea languages, and its grammar has a complicated noun and verb morphology [Foley(2000)]. Amele is mainly used in everyday conversations in the area and has discourseoriented phenomena [cf. Nose (2016b, 2018,2020)]. This study investigates the vocative
forms and address terms in Amele and tries to
describe the deeper level of its usages and explain them in functional terms. Further,
Amele-speaking people are bilingual. They cancode-switch between Amele and Tok Pisin, an
English-based Creole, quite freely. The study
considers the code-switching between Amele
and Tok Pisin, and their vocative usages.
In this paper, section 2 presents a previous
study of vocatives, addresses terms, and introduces the Amele lang uag e. Section 3
constitutes the data of the vocative expressions
in Amele, and section 4 is the discussion, while
Section 5 is the conclusion.

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II

General remarks concerning
vocative and address terms
and the Amele language(1) Amele:
Mam
Aic		

“father”“mother”

This section reviews several studies on address terms and vocatives (cf. Brown & Gilman(1960), Maccoonnell-Ginet (2003, 2020), Sonnenhauser & Hanna (2013), Zwicky (1974),
and others) and introduces the sample language, Amele, including grammatical andsociolinguistic situations.
Amele is one of the Trans-New Guinea languages spoken in Madang Province, Papua
New Guinea. Roberts (1987) has already described Amele's grammar. The author started
fieldwork in the Amele community in 2006
and has been describing its grammar and sociolinguistic observations (Foley (2000), Nose
(2016a, 2016b, 2018, 2020), Vaux (2007)) since.
Word order in the Amele is a fixed SubjectObject-Verb (SOV). Amele has a complicatedverb morphology and tense, and person andnumber information. Sociolinguistically, mostspeakers of Amele are bilingual with Tok Pisin,and they frequently code-switch between the
two languages in their daily lives. In Papua
New Guinea, people have recently quit speaking their own native language and switching to
Tok Pisin. However, the Amele communities
still maintain their Amere language very well.
(Nose (2020), Wurm (1979)).
Lexically, languages have various kinds ofkinship terms like “father,” “mother,” nicknames like “Jim” for James, and diminutive
forms like Tarou-chan (“small Tarou” in Japanese), as well as g rammatica l persona lpronouns, like “you” and “he.” When language
speakers use these terms in conversation, they
can use them as address terms (1).

These address terms can be used when speakers call for other people; in this case, theyfunction as vocatives, as in (2).

1) The vocative case (grammatical vocative) is common

ative. The following are nominative and vocative
examples (Sakurai 2007: 36):“children” nominative: vaīkas, vocative: vaīke“brothers” nominative: brólis, vocative: bróli

Vocatives in Amele, Papua New Guinea

Masahiko Nose

in several Indo-European languages (Latin, Romanian,and Lithuanian) and other languages (Arabic, Georgian,and Korean). Particularly, it is used for calling the person on site.
Lithuanian has 7 cases — nominative, genitive,
dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and voc-

(2) Amele:
Mam, hoga! “Father, come!”
Nose (2018) examined address terms in
Amele, and this study will explore its vocative
usages. The vocative is generally used in grammatical terms. For example, Latin has thevocative case, as in (3).
(3) Latin:
Brūt-e “Oh, Brūtus”(nominative form: Bruutus)
The vocative case is used in Russian, Romanian, Arabic, and other languages and has been
discussed in these languages previously. It is acommon tool in literary pieces and religious
texts. However, the vocative case does not appear to be necessary for grammar, in general.
Instead, it is related to sociolinguistic or pragmatic factors.1)
Roberts (1987: 182) described the vocative
case in Amele as indicating “the use of a proper
name, kinship term, title, or greeting followedby the vocative particles o or e expressing a calling or exclamation.” He also pointed out thatthe vocative particles Se (which translates to“Hey”) or O can be used more frequently in
Amele songs at the end of a line or verse. Examples are shown in (4).

035

(4) Vocatives in Amele: (Roberts 1987)2)
Sewa o.
“O Sewa”
Au e.
“O mother”
Se gaini eu adi odoga?
“Hey, my friend what on earth have you
done?”
O caja ana unuguna?
“O woman where are you going?”
Additionally, Roberts (1987: 272) pointed
out there is a vocative mood in Amele. “Thevocative mood expresses the notion of friendly
calling or hailing,” as in (5).
(5) Vocative mood in Amele:
Cois o“OK”
Hoga e“Come!”
This study’s author has already collected theaddress terms in Amele (Nose 2018) and tries
to examine the usages of these terms in everyday discourse. This study will examine thevocative usages vis-a-vis the address terms, acquire deeper descriptions of vocatives forcalling in the Amele, and then explain them insociolinguistic terms (cf. MaccoonnellGinet(2003, 2020), Meyerhoff (2015), Zwicky(1974)).
The author conducted field interviews in
Sein village, an Amele- speaking area in Papua
New Guinea. The interviews took place in2017, 2018, and 2019. Amele speakers are bilinguals who also speak Tok Pisin, a common
language in Papua New Guinea, the usage of
which is investigated in this study.3)

2) Such vocative particles can be observed in other lan-

guages. For example, Japanese has the vocative particle“yo”(i) Okaasan “mother,” okaasan yo ”mother!”(ii) Gakuseisan “student,” gakuseisan yo “Student!”

036

III

Vocative data in Amele

This section shows the vocative data, addresses terms, and tries to describe the meanings of
its usages. There are various ways of callingsomeone, and their forms are realized grammatically and lexically. Amele speakers can use
both Amele and Tok Pisin callings.
This section shows the data on vocatives, personal pronouns, kinship terms, friends andneighbors, nicknames, and borrowings fromTok Pisin and other means.
First, Amele has personal pronouns, as
shown in (6).
(6) Personal pronouns in Amele: (Nose (2018,2020))
1st person singular:		
Ija
2nd person singular:		
Ina
3rd person singular:		
Uqa
1st person dual:		Ere(“you and me”)
1st person plural:		
Ege
2nd person plural:		Age
3rd person plural:		Age(“Ete hi” for non-human)
There is a distinction between the secondperson singular “ina” and the plural “age.” Still,
their difference does not imply a T/V (Tu/Vous) difference, as observed in French andother Indo-European languages (Brown andGilman 1960). Strangely, the 2nd person pluraland 3rd person plural forms are the same—“age,”—and the 1st person dual “ere” includes “you and me.” Thus, the Amele speaker
calls someone by using personal pronouns; thefollowing pronouns are preferred, as in (7).

3) The author could not reach the site in 2020 and later,

because of the COVID19 pandemic. The author wishes
the Amele people good health and plans to visit the siteagain.

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(7) Personal pronoun choices:
Speaker > one hearer: Ina (Ina, ihoc
fo?; you, alright, are you)
Speaker > hearers: Age
Speaker and hearer/hearers: Erederstand that Tok Pisin is a common language
among Amele and non-Amele speakers.
Thus, this study describes the choice of languages inside and outside the community, as in(10).

Next, this study shows kinship terms in the
Amele. As shown in (8), Nose (2018) collectedkinship terms in the Amele, and they may frequently be used as vocatives. Also, callingothers by their first name is an important option, as in (9). In fact, first names arecommonly used as a calling, while last names
are rarely used. The Amele first names are often
related to Christianity as they are Christians
and hence, have Christian names.4)(10) Language choice in an Amele-speaking area:
Inside the community: mainly Amele, but
the speakers can freely code-switch between
Amele and Tok Pisin
Outside the community: Tok Pisin. Other
people speak each other's native language,
and Amele is unintelligible.

(8) baic dana / baic aya“Grandfather/ grandmother”
mam / aic
“Father/ mother”5)	wari (also means “friend”) / ebimei,“Brothers/ sisters”
meru / melait,“Son/ daughter”(9) Examples of first and last names in Amele:
First names:
Males: Lio, Neret, Batren, Nataniel, Wes
	Females: Adela, Nicola, Deborah, Marita,
KatrinLast names: Tamo, Jogi, Wala, Gadua
When Amele people speak to each other,
they use kinship terms among family members.
In Amele-speaking villages, they use personalpronouns, nicknames, and first names. Outside
Amele villages, they switch languages from
Amele to Tok Pisin. Other people do not un-

Next, when speakers call their friends, they
can use the words meaning “brother, sister,”and these words function as a kind of greeting
and a vocative [see (12)], too (Nose 2018). In
the Amele, the word “wari” means “friend,
brothers, and sisters.” “Wari” designates people
emotionally close to the speaker. Amele speakers can code-switch between Amele and Tok
Pisin, inside and outside the community (11),while simultaneously addressing males and females.
(11) To friends:
To male friends:
	Wari (Amele)/ Poro, brata, frend (Tok Pisin)
To female friends:
	Wari, Aqa (Amele)/ Susa, frend (Tok Pisin)(12) “Wari” functions as a “greeting” (to male/
females)“Hei, wari! Ihoc fo?”
(Hi, friend, how are you?)

4) But Christian names are not necessary. One boy in an5) In Amele, “mam” means “father,” and this fact is con-

Vocatives in Amele, Papua New Guinea

Masahiko Nose

Amele village was named after the author — Masahiko.
Thus, their naming system is considered to be free.

fusing for other language speakers, because mam (“father” in Amele) and mama (“mother” in Tok Pisin) aresimilar.

037

In (12), the vocative form “wari” is similar to
the usage of the Australian English word“mate” (cf. Rendle-Short (2009)).
As shown in Nose (2018), Amele speakers use
nicknames as address terms. They can use themas callings, too. As shown in (13), Amele speakers can use b oth Amele and Tok Pisin
nicknames, but their forms are sometimes periphrastic and are not easy to use as a calling.
These nicknames can be used when the person
addressed is not present.

and by their proximity to a distinctive landmark, for example “telikom tower” and “waana.”(13) Nicknames in Amele (Amele; Tok Pisin;“English”)
Mala ofdo dana; Kakarukman;“man raising chickens”
Saab ehe dana; Farmer;“farmer(agriculture)”
Uur ehe dana; Man bilong painim fish;“fisherman”

Finally, this study specifies borrowings fromthe Tok Pisin language. Because Amele speakers can code-switch between the two languages
quite freely; although they can speak Tok Pisin
among Amele-speaking people only. However,as in (15), foreign-based job titles are expressed
only in Tok Pisin.

In Amele, figurative words are used as nicknames. For example, there is a place wherewater is taken from the river below the valley
for washing and drinking (water place) in the
Amele villages. The man who lives near it are
called “waa-na” (at water place). A wife from adifferent village who comes to an Amele village
by marriage is called by the location name ofher hometown. These are metonymy-based
vocatives. Particularly, Amele speakers and other native people in Papua New Guinea callpeople by their location name (14). Amele
speakers address outsiders according to where
they come from, as in “Dagua” and “Karkar,”6) Dagua and Karkar are terms for women, i.e. Amele

men’s wives, who came from the Dagua (Sepik Province)
and Karkar island, respectively. Dagua and Karkar people have stayed in the Amele area after their marriage
and they speak Amele, too. Nevertheless, the Amele
people call them Dagua and Karkar. This fact indicatesthat they are still regarded as outsiders in the Amele village.

038(14) Nicknames using metonymy:	Dagua; (a person from Dagua, Sepik;
place name
Karkar; (a person from Karkar Island)6)	Telikom tower; (a person living near amobile phone tower)7)
Waa-na; (a person living near water)(15) Professions, in borrowings from Tok Pisin:
Tisa 		
“teacher”
Pasta 		“ pastor”
Professor 		“Professor”
Missionari 		“missionary”
Gavman “Government official”
	SIL 		“person from SIL(Summer Institute of Linguistics)”
Moreover, there are no honorific titles inAmele. Instead, English-based honorific titles
are used as vocatives: mista (Mr.), missis (Mrs.),
and white man (white people).8)7) In 2017, a cell phone company in Papua New Guinea

built a cell phone tower in the Amele village. A man
lives near and takes care of the tower. The villagers callhim “telikom tower.”8) In Amele conversation, speakers frequently use thediscourse markers madoga “I tell you,” and hoga “comeon.” These discourse markers can function to introduce
further discourse (to urge the listener to speak) and they
partly have the function of calling (from speaker to listener).

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IV

Discussion

serve them; this study considers them a type ofinterjection. Therefore, there is no productive
vocative form in Amele. Additionally, there is
no “Tu/Vous” (T/V) distinction in Amele, likein French, . Grammatically, Amele lacks polite
forms. Instead, Amele speakers use several
kinds of address terms (personal pronouns,
kinship terms, nicknames, and first names) as
vocatives and code-switch vocative terms between Amele and Tok Pisin. Additionally,
several address terms “wari, brata, sista, frend”
function as signs of intimacy.
Second, this study tries to explain the vocative usages in terms of sociolinguistics. Amelespeaking people have several options (personalpronouns, kinship terms, and others in Amele
and Tok Pisin). Their usages depend on intimacy, as shown in (16a). Amele speakers prefer the
Amele language in everyday discourse when
they are part of an in-group. At the same time,they are bilingual speakers and prefer to use
Tok Pisin when they speak with non-Amele
speakers or an out-group, as shown in (16b).
Also, Tok Pisin usage for out-group speakers
indicates a kind of non-intimacy and politeness. They can also code-switch between Amele
and Tok Pisin (16a, 16b) and manage their human relations.

This section discusses the research questions
mentioned earlier. We have observed various
usages of the vocative case and address terms in
section 3. Next, we discuss how Amele speakers
use vocatives for calling in the Amele and Tok
Pisin languages. Finally, we discuss the sociolinguistic effects of the vocative.
There are many kinds of previous studies on
vocatives and the related subject matter (Brown
and Gilman 1960, McConnell-Ginet 2003,
2020, Meyerhoff 2015, Sonnnehauser and Hanna 2013, Zwicky 1974), which approached thevocative forms semantically and cross-linguistically. Also, the vocative form is used in Latin
and other Indo-European languages. Many researchers have considered vocatives in terms ofhistorical linguistics and other areas. This study
shows the usage of vocatives in the Amele, following the investigation of address terms in thelanguage (Nose 2018) Zwicky (1974: 791), indicates that all address forms are usable as calls.
Roberts (1987) points out several vocative usages (vocative particles and vocative mood) in
Amele. This study found that address terms canbe used in vocatives and that since Amele
speakers are bilingual, both can be used as vocatives in Amele and Tok Pisin. The language
choice is reflected in the sociolinguistic effects.
First, this study discusses the particular usageof the vocative in Amele. There are no formal(grammatical) vocative means in Amele. Roberts (1987) points out the vocative particles andthe vocative mood, but this study did not ob-(16) Intimacy scale in an Amele-speaking area:
a. Amele language (in-group): wari [first name,kinship, nickname>location name] > pronoun> job titles (Tok Pisin loans)b. Tok Pisin languages (out-group): frend [first
name, kinship, nickname] > pronoun > job titles

Vocatives in Amele, Papua New Guinea

Masahiko Nose

039

V

Conclusion

This study claims that Amele speakers use akind of code-switching in vocative usages. They
use Amele vocatives with familiar people orthose inside their community. Also, they preferusing Tok Pisin vocatives with non-familiar
people or outsiders to their community. Thereis no polite form in the Amele or Tok Pisin language; therefore, language choices, either inAmele or Tok Pisin, reflect sociolinguistic relations. Instead, people use the intimate term of“wari” in Amele and “frend” in Tok Pisin.
Amele and Tok Pisin are mostly used in spoken situations and rarely used in written
situations (except at a Mass in Christianchurches and in bibles). Therefore, the Amele
and Tok Pisin languages do not require a grammatical vocative, though they developed
vocative particles [“wari” (friend)] and place
names to function as vocatives. Nevertheless,several vocative options are deeply related tothe address terms, and their variations are realized in the intimacy scale of Amele and Tok
Pisin, as shown in (16).
【Acknowledgments】

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 15K02478 and 20K00541.
An earlier version of this paper was presented
at the Sociolinguistics Symposium 23. Hong
Kong University (online conference), ( June.
7-10, 2021). I am grateful to the audience for
their comments. The author would like tothank Enago (www.enago.jp) for the English
language review.

040

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Vocatives in Amele, Papua New Guinea
Masahiko Nose

There are around 270 indigenous languages
spoken in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. This study focuses on the vocative forms in
Amele, a Trans-New Guinea language (Roberts
1987), and Tok Pisin, the English-based Creole.
The Amele speakers are mostly bilingual of
Amele and Tok Pisin, and this study pays special attention to the vocative usages of the two
languages. Amele speakers have maintained
their indigenous language in such a bilingual
situation.
When people want to call other people oraddress them, they use vocative forms (Sonnenhauser and Hanna 2013, Zwicky 1974). To callothers, we can use personal pronouns such“you, nimen (in Chinese), Sie (in German),and Anata (in Japanese).” At the same time,these pronouns can function as vocatives. This
study investigated a variety of vocative forms in
Amele and Tok Pisin, such as “friend,” “brother,” “that man” and “you.”This study found that the term in Amele“wari” means “friend(s), brother(s)” for calling
men and women. The term “wari” is frequently
used inside the Amele community, and the 2nd
person pronoun “ina” (you) is not preferred using as a call. Tok Pisin has the equivalent forms,“frend,” “poro,” “brata” and “sista,” in addition
to the 2nd person “yu/yupla.” When the Amele
people recognize the people outside the community, they stop using “wari,” because they are
not their group.

Finally, this study claims that the Amele
speakers use a kind of code-switching in vocative usages. They use the vocatives in the Amele
language to familiar people or inside the community. Otherwise, they prefer Tok Pisin
vocatives to non-familiar people or outside thecommunity. On the other hand, there is no polite form in Amele and Tok Pisin.

Vocatives in Amele, Papua New Guinea

Masahiko Nose041