Apma language
Apma (or Abma) is the language of central Pentecost island in Vanuatu. Apma is an Oceanic language (a branch of the Austronesian language family). Within Vanuatu it sits between North Vanuatu and Central Vanuatu languages, and combines features of both groups. With an estimated 7,800 native speakers (in the year 2000), Apma is the most widely spoken of Pentecost's native languages, and the fifth largest vernacular in Vanuatu as a whole. In recent times Apma has spread at the expense of other indigenous languages such as Sowa and Ske. Apma is increasingly mixed with words and expressions  from Bislama, Vanuatu's national language. Name of the language. Like Pentecost's other languages, Apma is named after the local word for "what" or "something". Locally it is usually referred to simply as "language" or "our language". Many people from other areas of Vanuatu recognise the language by the catchphrase meaning "good" or "OK", or refer informally to its speakers as , an Apma term of address for brothers or friends. Some linguists treat the Apma sound "p" as an allophone of "b", and thus write the language's name as "Abma". However, this interpretation of the language's phonology  is disputed, and locally "Apma" is the preferred spelling. Dialects and range. Modern Apma has three well-defined dialects: Two other probable Apma dialects, Asuk (or Asa) in the south-west and Wolwolan (or Volvoluana) in the north, are now extinct. Phonology. 6 vowel sounds are present in Apma: 20 consonants are in Apma: The consonant phonemes of Apma are b, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, ng (as in English "singer"), r, s, t, ts (or j), bilabial v, w, and labiovelar bw and mw. The consonants "b", "bw", "v" and "w" are realised as p where they  occur at the end of a syllable; "b" may also be devoiced to "p" when next to an unvoiced consonant, as in "lie down". Clusters of consonants cannot occur within a syllable. Unlike in closely related Raga language, word roots in Apma can end with a consonant. In archaic and northern varieties of Apma, prenasalization of consonants occurs in some environments, so that "b" becomes "mb", "d" becomes "nd", and "g" becomes "ngg". This feature has been lost in modern Suru Mwerani dialect. Apma's five vowels come in short forms (a, e, i, o and u) and long  forms (aa, ee, ii, oo and uu). Long vowels typically occur where a consonant (most commonly "r") has historically been lost. Vowels can occur alone or in various combinations. A few words (e.g. "wild cane") contain a distinctive rounded high-front vowel, generally written as "iu" although perceived by speakers simply as a variant of "u". Stress is normally on the penultimate syllable of a word. However, syllables that end with a consonant or a long vowel take stress in precedence to other syllables. Grammar. Basic word order in Apma is subject–verb–object. Occasionally, a subject may occur out  of its usual position, in which case it is marked with : Pronouns. Personal pronouns are distinguished by person and number. They are not distinguished by gender. The basic pronouns differ substantially between dialects: The dual or plural form of "you" is occasionally used in place of the singular form to show extreme respect. Nouns. Nouns in Apma are generally not preceded by articles. Plurality is indicated by placing the pronoun ("them") 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: The possessive suffixes are as follows: In Suru Kavian dialect, vowels in certain directly possessed nouns and possessive classifiers change according to the pattern illustrated below. This does not occur in other dialects: A verb may be transformed into a noun by the addition of a nominalising suffix : Modifiers generally come after a noun, although those derived from nouns may come before: Verbs. Verbs in Apma are usually preceded by a subject pronoun and  by a marker indicating the tense, aspect and mood of the action. The subject pronouns are as follows: Apma has the following tense/aspect/mood markers: The full forms of these markers are used in the 3rd person singular (where there is no subject pronoun): Elsewhere, short forms of these markers are suffixed to the subject pronoun: The imperfective marker alters to some extent to match the sound of the verb it is attached to. It is usually absent altogether when the verb begins with "b" or "bw". (In Suru Kavian dialect, it is absent when the verb begins with  any consonant other than "r".) For example, in Suru Mwerani: Dual (two-person) forms consist of the plural forms with "ru" (or "ri" in Suru Kavian) inserted after the tense/aspect/mood marker: There is a pattern of verb-consonant mutation whereby "v" at the start of a verb changes to "b", and "w" changes to "bw", in certain aspects/moods: In northern and archaic varieties of Apma, there is also mutation of "k" to "g", and of "t" to "d". Particles that can occur in a verb phrase include: The direct object, if one is present, immediately follows the  verb. When the object is inanimate and already known, it need not be stated explicitly: The passive voice can be formed by attaching the suffix "-an" to the verb: When giving instructions, verbs are preceded simply by the 2nd person subject pronoun "ko" or "karu" "you": Many verbs in Apma have distinct transitive and intransitive forms. (These distinctions have been lost to some extent in Suru Kavian dialect.) For example, in Suru Mwerani: In Suru Mwerani dialect, and to a lesser extent Suru Rabwanga, vowels have been lost from a number of verb roots, producing 'bound verbs' which begin with  a pair of consonants (such as "-mni" and "-slo" above). Since clusters of consonants within a syllable are prohibited in Apma, speakers usually cite these verbs with a prefix such as "mwa-" attached ("mwamni", "mwaslo"), and do not identify them as words when unprefixed. In addition to verbs denoting actions, Apma has a large number of stative verbs that describe an item. For example, there is a verb "to be red" ("meme") and a verb "to be good" ("gabis"). Apma uses stative verbs in many of the situations where adjectives would be used in English. Unlike neighbouring Raga language, Apma  has a copular verb, "(v)i" or "bi". The phrase "tei…" meaning "it was…" ("tevi…" in Suru Kavian) is commonly used to focus attention on something or to set the scene. Verbs in Apma can be linked together in a variety of serial verb constructions. Negation. Negation is marked by the discontinuous morpheme "ba…nga". The "ba" always occurs before the verb and the "nga" occurs after the verb or after the direct object should one occur as seen in (1) where 'step' is the verb and 'breadfruit branch' the direct object. In the absence of a direct object the verb  alone sits within the morpheme as seen in. A derivative of the common negative morpheme exists to indicate in-completion. "Bado… ngamwa" means 'not yet' and codes for the verb not being completed, with expectation that completion of the verb will eventually occur as seen in (2). Here, the -"do" in "bado" codes for 'yet' as does the -"mwa" in "ngamwa." In comparison, (3) indicates that the subject of the sentence is 'not very good', leaving no room for further completion. "Bado…ngamwa" is not used in this examples but provides evidence of how the sentence is effected by in -completion. Also to be noted is that in both examples a word for 'be.good' is included but in (2) it occurs once while it occurs twice in (3). This could indicate that "mnok" or another action verb takes the place of one of the