Talk:Pileni language

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Næas, Åshild. 2000. Pileni. München: Lincom Europe. 90 pages.
"The Polynesian Outlier language Pileni is spoken by approximately 2,000 people on a group of small coral islands in Temotu Province, Solomon Islands. Situated in a fairly isolated area of the Pacific, the islands have a long tradition of trade connections with the nearby Reefs and Santa Cruz islands, whose little-described languages do not appear to be Austronesian and so are totally unrelated to Pileni. This prolonged language contact has resulted in a number of features in Pileni which are highly unusual for a Polynesian language. Since this is the first systematic description of the Pileni language and based on a relatively limited material, it must be regarded as preliminary and open to correction. It will, however, provide a useful basis for further studies of the Pileni language."
Pileni

Language facts sheet by Niklas Jonsson
©1997-1999 POLLI & Niklas Jonsson

A bibliography of works refered to in this file may be found in the Polynesian Literature List.
Country/territory where spoken
Solomon Islands
Geographical region
Taumako (Duff) Islands and some of the Reef Islands - all in the Temotu Province.
Language codes
PIL (POLLI); PIV (Grimes 1996: Ethnologue); PIL (Biggs 1971)[1]
Alternate language names
Pilheni
Genetic affiliation
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central-Eastern Oceanic, Remote Oceanic, Central Pacific, Eastern Fiji-Polynesian, Polynesian, Nuclear Polynesian, Samoic- Outlier, Futunic
Dialect names
Taumako, Pileni, Nukapu, Nupani, Aua, Matema
Wurm/Hattori (1981) make a distinction between the Taumako dialect (Eastern Pileni dialect) and the Aua dialect (Western Pileni dialect), the latter probably comprising the variants spoken on Aua, Nupani, Nukapu, Pileni and Matema.
Pileni speaking population
878 (1976); 878 total.
Alphabet
A, E, I, O, U, NG, H, K, L, M, N, P, S, T, V (Biggs 1971) - may be incomplete. The island name "Nifiloli" (Stanley 1989:706) seems to imply that F may be included in the alphabet. Speakers in the Taumako Islands pronounce H like F, and S like H (Biggs 1971).
Remarks
Pileni is spoken on the islands of Nupani, Nukapu, Pileni, Nifiloli and Matema of the Reef Island Group, and in the Taumako (Duff) Islands (and on the island of Aua, of which location I am uncertain - Niklas Jonsson). The Pileni and Taumako dialects differ in significant ways (Grimes 1992). The Taumako and Aua dialects, once phonologically different, may be merging (Biggs 1971). Speakers are thought to be descendants of people from Tuvalu (Stanley 1989:650).
ata last updated
17 December 1998
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY - PILENI
CAPELL, ARTHUR.
1962. Oceanic linguistics today (includes information about Pileni) (in: Current Anthropology, vol 3, p 371-428)
DAVENPORT, W.
1968. Social organisation notes on the santa Cruz Islands: The Duff Islands (Taumako) (includes information on Pileni kin terms) (in: Baessler-Archiv, Neue Folge, Band 16, pp 137-208)
ELBERT, SAMUEL H.
1965. Phonological expansions in Outlier Polynesian (in: Milner/Henderson (editors). Indo-Pacific linguistic studies - part 1, p 431-42)
RAY, SIDNEY H.
1912-. Polynesian linguistics: past and future (a series of articles running through Journal of the Polynesian Society vol 21-30) (vol 29, p 176-86, include information about Pileni)
Polynesian Langs:Pileni, ÅSHILD NÅSS [I assume this is the same person listed above as Næas Åshild, and below as Næss Å...Tomertalk 04:40, 5 December 2005 (UTC)]
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 09:02:57 +0100
From: LINCOM EUROPA <LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de>
Subject: Polynesian Langs:Pileni, ÅSHILD NÅSS


Pileni
ÅSHILD NÅSS, University of Oslo
The Polynesian Outlier language Pileni is spoken by approximately 2,000 people on a group of small coral islands in Temotu Province, Solomon Islands. Situated in a fairly isolated area of the Pacific, the islands have a long tradition of trade connections with the nearby Reefs and Santa Cruz islands, whose little-described languages do not appear to be Austronesian and so are totally unrelated to Pileni. This prolonged language contact has resulted in a number of features in Pileni which are highly unusual for a Polynesian language.
The language has little morphological case-marking and relies mainly on a basic SVO word order for the differentiation of nominal arguments, although word order is flexible according to certain rules. Pileni is clearly a nominative-accusative language, although certain morphosyntactic processes reflect what may be traces of an earlier ergative morphology.
In the basics of its phonology and morphology Pileni resembles other Polynesian languages, although the phonology is considerably more complex than is common in these languages, with phonemic aspiration on stops and a number of phonetically conditioned consonant alternations. The language exhibits characteristic Polynesian features of morphology such as the distinction between "o-type" and "a-type" possession and a complex system of personal pronouns.
Since this is the first systematic description of the Pileni language and based on a relatively limited material, it must be regarded as preliminary and open to correction. It will, however, provide a useful basis for further studies of the Pileni language.
ISBN 3 89586 932 5.
Languages of the World/Materials 325.
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Linguistics
Even Hovdhaugen and Åshild Næss.
The linguistic part of the project focuses on the documentation (grammars, text collections and dictionaries) and studies (articles in linguistic journals on typological, sociolinguistic and diachronic matters) of the Pileni and Äiwo languages in Vaeakau and the Reef Islands in the Temotu province in the far east of the Solomon Islands.
Pileni is a Polynesian language, but both in syntax and especially phonology it is quite different from the other Polynesian languages. The ancestors of the present-day Polynesian population in Vaeakau and on the Duff Islands (about 1500 persons) probably came from the east at least 600 years ago. Linguistic studies so far indicate that there were several linguistically different groups of Polynesian ancestors, probably arriving at different times.
Äiwo is a non-Austronesian language of unclear genetic affiliation. It is appears to be related to the languages on Santa Cruz, and it may be related to some Papuan languages in the Solomons and in Papua Niu Kini. Äiwo is a typologically very interesting language with features that are found in only a very few of the world's languages like OVS word order and a unit-augmented pronominal system. Äiwo appears also to have a uniquely complicated noun class system.
Pileni and Äiwo have been in close contact for at least 500 years - probably longer - through trade and intermarriage. Geographically the two languages and cultures are very close but at the same time very different.

Tomertalk 04:36, 5 December 2005 (UTC)