Cheke Holo language
{{short description|Austronesian language spoken in the Solomon Islands}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Cheke Holo
|states=Central Solomon Islands
|region=Santa Isabel Island
|speakers={{sigfig|10,840|3}}
|date=1999
|ref=e25
|familycolor=Austronesian
|fam2=Malayo-Polynesian
|fam3=Oceanic
|fam4=Northwest Solomonic
|fam5=New Georgia – Ysabel
|fam6=Ysabel
|fam7=East Isabel
|iso3=mrn
|glotto=chek1238
|glottorefname=Cheke Holo
}}
Cheke Holo (also called Maringe or Mariŋe, A’ara, Holo, Kubonitu) is an Oceanic language spoken in the Solomon Islands. Its speakers live on Santa Isabel Island.
Phonology
The phonology of Cheke Holo shows some peculiarities, shared with other Santa Isabel languages, like the aspirated stops and the voiceless sonorants. The five-vowel system instead conforms to the prototypical system of the Oceanic area {{harvcol|White|Kokhonigita|Pulomana|1988}}. {{harvcoltxt|Boswell|2018|p=16}} has /x/ rather than /ɣʰ/.
| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
|+ Consonant phonemes !colspan="2"| !colspan="2"| Labial !colspan="2"| Alveolar !colspan="2"| Palatal !colspan="2"| Velar !colspan="2"| Glottal |
| colspan="2"| Nasal
|width=20px style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|m̥}}||width=20px style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|m}} |width=20px style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|n̥}}||width=20px style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|n}} |width=20px style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|ɲ̊}}||width=20px style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|ɲ}} |width=20px style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|ŋ̊}}||width=20px style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|ŋ}} |colspan="2"| |
|---|
| rowspan="2"| Stop
! {{small|plain}} |style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|p}}||style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|b}} |style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|t}}||style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|d}} |style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}||style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|d͡ʒ}} |style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|k}}||style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|ɡ}} |width=20px style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|ʔ}}||width=20px style="border-left: 0;"| |
| {{small|aspirated}}
|style="border-right: 0;"|pʰ||style="border-left: 0;"| |style="border-right: 0;"|tʰ||style="border-left: 0;"| |colspan="2"| |style="border-right: 0;"|kʰ||style="border-left: 0;"| |colspan="2"| |
| rowspan="2"| Fricative
! {{small|plain}} |style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|f}}||style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|v}} |style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|s}}||style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|z}} |colspan="2"| |style="border-right: 0;"| ||style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|ɣ}} |style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|h}}||style="border-left: 0;"| |
| {{small|aspirated}}
|colspan="2"| |colspan="2"| |colspan="2"| |style="border-right: 0;"| ||style="border-left: 0;"|ɣʰ |colspan="2"| |
| colspan="2"| Lateral
|colspan="2"| |style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|l̥}}||style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|l}} |colspan="2"| |colspan="2"| |colspan="2"| |
| colspan="2"| Trill
|colspan="2"| |style="border-right: 0;"|{{IPA link|r̥}}||style="border-left: 0;"|{{IPA link|r}} |colspan="2"| |colspan="2"| |colspan="2"| |
| class="wikitable"
|+ Vowel phonemes ! ! Front ! Central ! Back |
| High
| align="center"|{{IPA link|i}} || || align="center"| {{IPA link|u}} |
|---|
| Mid
| align="center"|{{IPA link|e}} || || align="center"|{{IPA link|o}} |
| Low
| || align="center"|{{IPA link|a}} || |
Morphosyntax
Verbs in Cheke Holo are marked neither for tense nor for person, although they can be prefixed with fa- (a causative marker) and they take enclitics. Among the possible clitics are the direct object pronouns, the completive aspect markers hi and hila, and the continuative aspect marker u {{harvcol|Boswell|2018}}.
Reduplication is commonly employed with verb roots to express iteration or intensification and as a valency changing device (from intransitive to transitive), although there are attested cases of adjective and (less so) noun reduplication {{harvcol|Boswell|2018}}. Different types of reduplications are possible in Cheke Holo:
- Full reduplication
- /vra/ 'jump up' > /vravra/ 'be quick to act'
- Partial (or White's rule) reduplication
- /bela/ 'wooden platform' > /beabela/ 'stack up firewood'
- Syllable reduplication
- /nolo/ 'to walk' > /nonolo/ 'go walking about'
- /kmokhu/ 'stop' > /kmokmohu/ 'continue to cease'
- /fruni/ 'cover' > /fufruni/ 'cover completely' (when the second consonant of a cluster is /r/, this is dropped in the reduplicated syllable)
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{Cite thesis |last=Boswell |first=Fredrick Alvin |title=A Grammar of Cheke Holo |date=2018 |degree=Doctoral |publisher=LOT Publications (Leiden University) |isbn=978-94-6093-301-1 |hdl=1887/67082 |hdl-access=free}}
- {{Cite book |last=White |first=Geoffrey |title=Cheke Holo (Maringe/Hograno) Dictionary |last2=Kokhonigita |first2=Francis |last3=Pulomana |first3=Hugh |date=1988 |publisher=Pacific Linguistics |isbn=0-85883-368-9 |series=Pacific Linguistics Series C - No. 97 |location=Canberra |doi=10.15144/pl-c97 |hdl=1885/145429 |hdl-access=free}}
- {{Cite journal |last=Palmer |first=Bill |date=2009 |title=Clause Order and Information Structure in Cheke Holo |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=213–249 |doi=10.1353/ol.0.0038 |s2cid=145092013|hdl=1959.13/916448 |hdl-access=free }}
External links
- [http://anglicanhistory.org/oceania/keha_tarai1934.html Keha Tarai Mala Lao Legu Narone] Anglican devotional material in Cheke Holo (1934)
- [http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Melanesia/cheke_holo_intro_MP.html Buka Tharai Ka Cheke Marine] Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Cheke Holo (1973) digitized by Richard Mammana
{{Languages of the Solomon Islands}}
{{Meso-Melanesian languages}}
{{Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages}}
Category:Languages of the Solomon Islands
{{MesoMelanesian-lang-stub}}
{{Solomons-stub}}