Toʼabaita language

Toqabaqita
Toʼabaita
Maluʼu
Native to	Solomon Islands
Region	Malaita Island
Native speakers	(13,000 cited 1999)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southeast Solomonic Malaita – San Cristobal Malaita Northern Malaita Toqabaqita
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mlu
Glottolog	toab1237

Toʼabaita, also known as Toqabaqita, Toʼambaita, Malu and Maluʼu, is a language spoken by the people living at the north-western tip of Malaita Island, of South Eastern Solomon Islands. Toʼabaita is an Austronesian language.

Overview

The website Ethnologue records the number of speakers of Toqabaqita as 12,600 in 1999. Lichtenberk, who has written an extensive grammar of Toqabaqita reports that Toqabaqita may be part of a North Malaita group of dialects which includes Baeguu, Baelelae and Fataleka, and possibly Lau. Ethnologue however reports no known dialects of Toqabaqita, but reports that within this group of languages, they are mutually intelligible. Lichtenberk points out that the speakers of Toqabaqita do recognize similarities across the whole island's languages, but the Toqabaqita people themselves do not have this conception of North Malaita being a language and Toqabaqita as a dialect within this group.

Toqabaqita is classified as member of the Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central-Eastern Oceanic, Southeast Solomonic language family. Then there is a slight divergence in classification between Lichtenberk and Glottolog. Lichetenberk classifies the next subgrouping as Longgu/Malaita/Makira (San Cristobal), whereas Glottolog does not include Longgu at this point, but instead as a sister subgroup to Malaita/Makira.

The Wikipedia entry for Longgu, which is a Southeast Solomonic language spoken on Guadalcanal, is reported to be originally from Malaita. Lichtenberg then breaks the Malaita/Makira subgroup into the Central/Northern and Southern Malaita subgroups, then North Malaita subgroup itself, to which Toqabaqita belongs. In contrast Glottolog breaks the subgroup Malaita/ San Cristobal (Makira) into two subgroups Malaita/Makira and Longgu, then to North and south Malaita subgroups, where the north includes the above listed putative dialects as well as the central Malaita languages. The number of speakers of Toqabaqita is relatively high for a Solomon Islands language, although most speakers become bilingual in Pijin as they grow up. Toqabaqita has the status of first language for children, and is used in daily life. Many Toqabaqita speakers also speak some English, and this is the language of the schools, although only primary schools are available locally. The literacy rate in Toqabaqita is 30-60%, and Latin script is used.

Language Typology

Toqabaqita has as its basic constituent order Subject - Predicate – X, with X referring to other elements that the subject and predicate. This can also be categorized as SVO (subject verb object) and SVX (subject verb other). Lynch in his review of Oceanic languages found that this constituent order is in fact the most widely geographically distributed pattern.

Verbs in Toqabaqita can include a variety of affixes, both suffixes and pre-fixes, which mark other grammatical categories of tense aspect, sequentiality and negation. Lexical objects are usually indexed on the verb as a suffix. In Toqabaqita the basic noun phrase consists minimally of a noun or an independent personal pronoun. Noun phrases may contain modifiers, which are generally suffixes. Lexical morphemes consist of at least two syllables in Toqabaqita. Where a monosyllabic word occurs, such as a grammatical morpheme, it then attaches as a clitic to the preceding word, with some notable exceptions. If speech is slow then the grammatical morpheme may have its vowel lengthened and take stress.

Phonology

Toqabaqita phonemes consist of 17 consonants and 5 vowels.

Consonant phonemes

		Bilabial	Interdental	Dental	Velar	Labial-velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n	ŋ
Stop	voiceless			t	k	k͡p	ʔ
	voiced	b		d	g	g͡b
Fricative		ɸ	θ	s
Approximant						w
Leteral				l
Trill				r

/k͡p/ and /g͡b/ are doubly-articulated voiceless and voiced labial–velar stop consonants. Pre-nasalization is a feature of particular Toqabaqita consonants, including all the voiced plosives, that is /b/, /d/, /g/ and /g͡b/, and for the glide /enwiki/w/ . The degree of prenasalization varies and is determined by their position in the word.

Vowel Phonemes

	front	central	back
close	ɪ		ʊ
open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
open		a

Vowels can be long, but it is not allowed to have adjacent long vowels. Stress is not indicated by the phonemes, but by the symbols (?) for primary stress and (?) for secondary stress (presumably by Lichtenberk, and presumably when glottal stop is written ⟨q⟩).

Personal Pronouns and Person Markers

Independent Personal Pronouns

The Independent person pronouns in Toqabaqita are for single, dual and plural pronouns for first person exclusive, first person inclusive, second and third person categories. With only a few systematic exceptions the pronominal noun phrases are used in the same position as where a lexical noun phrase would occur. Lexical nouns are marked only as singular or plural in Toqabaqita.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1 EXCL	nau	kamareqa	kamiliqa, kamaliqa, kami(1)
1 INCL		koro	kulu, kia(1)
2	qoe, qoo	kamaroqa	kamuluqa, kamaluqa, kamiu(1), kamu(1)
3	nia	keeroqa	kera, kiiluqa

Examples:

(1)	nau	ku	thathami-a	koro	koki
	1SG	1SG.NFUT	want-3.OBJ	DU(INCL)	DU(INCL).FUT
	"I want the two of us to eat."

{| | (2) ||kamiliqa||kori-a||fau||rafu|| |- | ||1PL(EXCL)||scrape-3.OBJ||stone||sea.cucumber.sp|| |- | || colspan="9" | "We scrape limestone..." |}

The variants in the table marked with (1) were used exclusively by women. Of these pronouns used only by women, only the first person inclusive plural pronoun kia is used at the present time. This is specifically in the context of referring to one's home, or one's home place or one's country most commonly when away from one's home area. It is notable that although there are multiple plural personal pronouns some are used more commonly than others. Some alternatives are rarely used, specifically these are the first person exclusive kamaliqa, the third person plural kiiluqa, and the second person singular qoo. Both forms of the second person plural, kamuluqa and kamaluqa are commonly used. There are phonetic associations with specific person pronouns. The dual pronouns all contain r, and the plurals all contain l, with exception of the third person plural kera. Lichtenberk suggests that this is due to their associations with the numbers rua which glosses as two, and ulu which glosses as three, and also that perhaps the plurals were previously trial or paucal forms of pronouns.

In some cases where the independent pronoun and a subject marker are identical (homophones) and occur in the same sentence one will be omitted, and Lichtenberk (2008) suggests it is the pronoun that is omitted. This occurs for koro, where it is both the inclusive dual inclusive independent personal pronoun and the dual inclusive nonfuture subject marker. Similarly kulu is both the plural inclusive independent plural pronoun and the plural inclusive nonfuture subject marker. Lichtenberk believes that most speakers would avoid the repetition.

(3)	(?kulu)	kulu	foqa	naqa
	PL(INCL)	PL(INCL).NFUT	pray	PRF
	"Let's pray now"

In the above example the first kulu would be deleted. The independent personal pronouns, including the third person pronouns, are used with human reference, or with spirits, very rarely with animals. They may be used with mythological animals or with an animal that is in view.

(4)	Nia	ka	riki-a	ma	ka	thathami-a	kai	lai	bii	keeroqa
	3SG	3SG.SEQ	see.3SG.OBJ	and	3SG.SEQ	want-3.OBJ	3.SG.FUT	go	COM	3DU
	"He (a boy) saw it and wanted to go with them (his parents)"

(5)	Nia	e	mataqi	nena
	3SG	3SG.NFUT	be.sick	N.PAST.THERE
	"It (a chicken) is sick (the chicken is in view)"

The third person pronoun can be used to specify subject topicalization, even with inanimate objects, as is:

(6)	dadaku)	qeri	nia	qe	takwi	qi'	laa	one
	Calophyllum.sp	that	3SG	3SG.NFUT	that	stand	LOC	in	<smallsand
	"The dadaku tree, it stood in the sand on the beach"

There are numerous specific uses of the independent personal pronouns such as the third person singular pronoun being used to close off a story or a narration, in a verb-less statement:

(7)	Nia	bo-naqa	neri
	3SG	ASRT=PRF	N.PAST>HERE
	"That's all I have to say"

To emphasize a pronoun the same strategies that are used with lexical nouns are also employed, but with a specific pronominal foregrounder ni.

(8)	Nau	ku	lae	naqa	ma	ni	kamuluqa
	1SG	1SG.NFUT	go	PRF	and	PROFORE	2PL
	"I'm going now; and you?"

Here the emphasis is on the persons being spoken to. The inclusive pronouns can be used in a way to include the addressee, to index personal closeness or in a jocular sense.

(9)	Nau	kwai	qasi-qaba	fas=i	laa	waki	koro	wane	nau
	1SG	1SG.FUT	fall-hand	PREC=LOC	in	basket	DU(INCL)	man	1SG
	"I am going to poke my hand into our basket, my friend (in the context of searching another's basket for tobacco or areca nut)"

Person Markers

Toqabaqita uses person markers with proper nouns that designate people, spirits, ogres, pets and domestic animals. They are gender differentiated, with tha used with male and ni with female people. When referring to gods and spirits and introduced Christian deities, tha is used. Tha is used to refer to all pets and domestic animals, both male and female. They are used for reference not for address, see examples 11 and 12, but even then they are not obligatory.

(10)	Tha	Kwaqengara	ka	thare-a	ni	Kwakwanumae
	PRSMKR	Kwaqengara	3.SG.SEQ	beget-3.OBJ	PRSMKR/small>	Kwakwanumae
	"Kwaqengara(male) begot Kwakwanumae(female)."

Contrast the need for a person marker when talking about Ulufaala the named person in the narration, rather than when he arrives in person.

(11)	Ma	tha	Ulufaalu	qe	sifo
	And	PRSMKR	Ulufaalu	3SG.NFUT	descend
	"And Ulufaalu went down (to the coast?)."

(12)	Ulufaalu	qe	fula	naqa
	Ulufaalu	3SG.NFUT	arrive	PRF
	"Ulufaalu has arrived."

(13)	Qoko	suqu-si-a	raa-la-na	wane	queri	tha	Saetana
	2SG.SEQ	block-TR3.OBJ	work.NMZL.PERS	man	this	PRSMKR	Satan
	"Block the workings of this man, Satan."

Tha is used with the nouns that refer to children, wela (child, young person), kale (offspring), or weleqi (adult males).

(14)	Tha	wela	'ba=e	sui	naqa
	PRSMKR	chap	that=3.SG.NFUT	be.finished	PRF
	"The chap expired."

Tha is used for inanimate objects that actually have names.

(15)	Nini	qau	marakawa	nia	tha	Raqafeqebasi
	bamboo.knife	piece.of.bamboo	be.green	3SG	PRSMKR	Raqafeqebasi
	"His green bamboo knife is named Raqafeqebasi."

Object Pronouns

In Toqabaqita there are two classes of transitive verbs, Class 1 and Class 2, and they index their pronominal direct objects differently. Class 1 transitives have object indexing suffixes only for the third person; -a for singular direct objects, -daroqa for dual categories and -da for plural objects.

(16)	Qo	riki-a?
	2SG.NFUT	see-3SG.OBJ
	"Did you see him/her/it?"

(17)	Qo	riki-daroqa?
	2SG.NFUT	see-3DU.OBJ
	"Did you see them(2)?"

Toqabaqita doesn't index object status first and second person, but it is indicated by the appropriate independent personal pronoun as in (18).

(18)	Kai	lole	qoe
	3SG.IPFV	tell.lie.to	2SG
	"He is lying to you."

Class 2 Transitive verbs have object indexing suffixes for all grammatical persons and numbers, and follow a similar pattern to the independent personal pronouns.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1EXCL	-ku	-mareqa	-miliqa, -maliqa, -mi(1), miqa(1)
1INCL		-karoqa	-kuluqa, -kaluqa, -ka(1)
2	-mu	-maroqa	-muluqa, -maluqa, -miu(1)
3	-na, -a	-daroqa	-da, -daluqa

Again there are forms that were previously used only by women, in women's speech, that are no longer used. For the third person singular there are two forms -na and -a, and their use is often phonologically determined, in particular so there are no sequences of three vowels.

(19)	taqe-fuil-a	maka	nia
	ascend-site.3.OBJ	father	3SG
	"(of a son) replace his father."

(20)	Nia	biinga	qa-na	qe	aqi	si	thaitoqoma-na
	3SG	sleep	SBEN-3SG.PERS	3SG.NFUT	NEGV	know-3SG.OBJ
	"He was asleep (and) didn't know (about) it."

The -na object pronoun is used here in (20) to follow the vowel a.

Subject Pronouns

Toqabaqita has subject indexing suffixes which appear on the verb and also indicate nonfuture tense, future tense, imperfect aspect, sequentiality, negative aspect, and dehortation. There is some suffixes that are the same in the third person dual and plural categories. It is interesting to observe that there are no archaic women's speech forms noted by Lichtenberk.

	nonfuture	future/imperfect	sequential	negative	dehortive
1SG	ku	kwai	kwa	kwasi	kwata
2SG	qo, qoi	qoki	qoko	qosi	qoto
3SG	qe, e	kai	ka	si	ta
1DU(EXCL)	mere	meki	meka	mesi	meta
1DU(INCL)	koro	koki	koka, koko	kosi	kota
2DU	moro, mori	moki	moka, moko	mosi	mota
3DU	kero	keki, kiki	keko, kiku	kesi, kisi	keto
1PL(EXCL)	mili	miki	mika	misi	mita
1PL(INCL)	kulu	kuki	kuka	kusi	kuta
2PL	mulu	muki	muka, muku	musi	muta
3L	kera, kere, kilu	keki, kiki	keka, kiku	kesi, kisi	keta

.

(21)	Mada	sa	mika	fula	qi	qusungadi	ka	leqa	ba-na
	or	IRR	1PL(EXCL).SEQ	arrive	LOC	tomorrow	3SG.SEQ	be.good	LIM-3SG.PERS
	"If we come tomorrow, will that be alright? (lit.:will that only be good?)"

(22)	Wela	qeri	roo	qaaqae	nia	ki'	qe	taqaa
	child	that	two	3SG	PL	3SG.NFUT	be.bad
	"The child, both of his legs are no good."

Possession

Possession in Toqabaqita is relational in that there are two entities in the relationship the “possessor” and the “possessum”. The possessor may own an item, it may be a body part, or a tool. But this also includes relationships with the person or item, including a kinship relationship. Lichtenberk prefers to term these “personal suffixes” as they not only index possession, but also with a transitive verb to index their subject, to indicate a recipient/beneficiary relationship, and to index a complement with a number of prepositions. These suffixes can be used with both lexical nouns and verbs. It can be seen that some of these suffixes are identical with the singular object pronoun suffixes, namely -ku, -na, and -a.

	singular	dual	plural
1EXCL	-ku	-mareqa	-miliqa, maliqa, -mi(1), -miqa(1)
1INCL		-karoqa	-kuluqa, -kulaqa, -ka(1)
2	-mu	-maroqa	-muluqa, -maluqa, -miu(1)
3	-na, -a	-daroqa	-da, -daluqa

Again there are forms previously used by women in speech, that are no longer used, marked (1). In terms of semantics the personal suffixes are used with relational nouns where the relationship is described as inalienable possession. This includes parts of a whole (24), body parts (23,27), products of a possessor (25,26), and integral contents such as blood of animal or juice of a fruit.

(23)	gwalusu-ku
	nose-1SG.PERS
	"my nose"

(24)	boor-a	kilu
	bottom-3SG.PERS	hole
	"the bottom of a hole"

(25)	qiiqida-ku
	sweat-1SG.PERS
	"my sweat"

(26)	nuu-na
	shadow/reflection/picture-3SG.PRS
	"a man's shadow/reflection/picture"

(27)	babali-na
	check-3SG.PERS
	"his/her cheek(s)"

From a phontactic point of view, words with l or r in the syllable use third person singular -na, as in example (27). Attributes as well as spatial and temporal relations of the possessor are also designated with these personal suffixes, as in example (28).

(28)	qi	qintoqo-na	biqu	naqi
	LOC	centre-3SG.PERS	house	this
	"in the centre of this house"

Toqabaqita also employs the bare possessive noun phrase where there is no indexing of the possessor on the possessed noun. A Possessor noun phrase must be present, this may be a lexical noun or a pronoun. The two following examples display this, in that a possessor noun phrase is pronominal, and it is the independent personal pronoun that is employed. In this manner all the independent pronouns can be bare possessor nouns.

(29)	biqu	keeroqa	na=i	Takwaraasi
	house	3DU	REL=LOC	Takwarassi
	"their house at Takwaraasi"

(30)	tarausis	tekwa	nau	baa
	trousers	be.long	1SG	that
	"those long trousers of mine"

Negation

There are a range of strategies that can be used to express negation in Toqabaqita. These are the simple negative, the negative verb, and the double negative construction.

Simple negative

Overview

The simple negative occurs when negation is achieved through means of the negative subject markers alone. The negative subject markers in Toqabaqita are listed above.

Syntactically, the negative subject markers occur in the verb phrase, between the irrealis marker (where present) and preverbal particles (where present). The negative subject markers always precede the verb.

The negative subject markers can be used to negate a range of clause types, such as declarative and imperative, shown in (31) and (32) below.

(31)	...	tha	wela	baa	si	fula	naqa,	...
		PERSMKR	child	that	3SG.NEG	arrive	PRF
	"[The people looked and looked (around),] (but) the boy had not arrived, ..."

(32)	Qosi	waela	qani	nau
	2SG.NEG	laugh	GENP	1SG
	"Don't laugh at me."

They also occur in clauses with future- and past-time reference, as in (33) and (34) below.

(33)	Nga	wane	baa	ki	kesi	lae	bo=mai	i	qusungadi
	IDENT	man	that	PL	3PL.NEG	go	ASRT=VENT	LOC	tomorrow
	"The men will not come tomorrow."

(34)	Nga	wane	baa	ki	kesi	fula	boqo	i	roqo
	IDENT	man	that	PL	3PL.NEG	arrive	ASRT	LOC	yesterday
	"The men did not arrive yesterday."

The simple negation and double negation strategies are often used interchangeably, although the double negative is more common. However, there is one context in which only simple negation occurs; this is where the negated verb functions as a noun modifier as in example (35).

(35)	fanua	si	rodo
	place	NEG	be.dark
	"place (that is) not dark', 'place without darkness" (referring to Christian heaven)

"Negative additiveness"

The simple negative is also used in a multi-clausal construction referred to as “negative additiveness”. The first clause in this construction is positive while any subsequent clauses will be negated using the negative subject markers. The underlying subjects of each clause will typically have the same reference, but the negative clause(s) will not have an expressed subject phrase.

Example (36) illustrates the negative additiveness construction. The subject of both clauses is nia, third person singular, but the second clause does not contain a subject phrase.

(36)	Nia	e	lae	na-na	si	baqe	laqu
	3SG	3SG.NFUT	go	PRF-3SG.PERS	3SG.NEG	speak	ADD
	"He went (away) without saying anything (lit.: he did not also speak)."

The negative additiveness construction does, however, allow distinct subject identities when its constituent clauses involve weather expressions. For example, the subject of the first verb in (37), -qaru ‘fall,ʼ is dani ‘rain.ʼ However, the underlying subject of the second verb in (37), thato ‘be sunnyʼ, is fanua ‘placeʼ as illustrated in (38). Nevertheless, the only expressed subject in (37) is that of the first clause.

(37)	Dani	e	qaa-qaru,	si	thato	naqa.
	rain	3SG.NFUT	RDP-fall	3SG.NEG	be.sunny	PRF
	"It has been raining and raining, without any sun (lit.: it has not become sunny)."

(38)	(Fanua)	qe	thato	naqa.
	place	3SG.NFUT	be.sunny	PRF
	"It is sunny now." "It has become sunny."

The negative verb

Overview

The second major strategy to express negation in Toqabaqita is the use of the negative verb aqi. This verb has a range of meanings, including ‘not be so, not be the caseʼ in general uses, and ‘not exist; not be availableʼ in existential constructions.

Aqi diverges from typical verbal behaviour in Toqabaqita in two key ways. Firstly, it only occurs with third person singular subject markers, rather than the full range of subject markers. Secondly, it typically does not take subject noun phrases.

Example (39) shows the use of the negative verb to describe the non-occurrence of a prayer service.

(39)	...	teqe	fa	Sandee	kai	aqi,	rua-na
		one	CLF	Sunday	3SG.FUT	not.be.so	two-3.PERS
	fa	Sandee	ka	faa-faqa-rongo-a		boqo	tha
	CLF	Sunday	3SG.SEQ	RDP-CAUS-hear-3.OBJ		ASRT	PERSMKR
	Rongoomea	kai	ngali	...
	Rongoomea	3SG.FUT	take.church.service
	"... one Sunday there will be nothing, the following (lit.: second) Sunday he will tell Rongoomea to take the service ..."

Negative existential sentences

Negative existential sentences are used to express the non-existence of an entity and aqi exhibits different syntactic behaviour when used in negative existential constructions.

Firstly, where aqi normally does not take subject noun phrases, it does take a subject noun phrase when used for negative existentials. Furthermore, in negative existentials, the subject phrase follows the verb, as shown in example (40) below. This is in contrast to the standard constituent order in Toqabaqita in which the subject precedes the verb, shown in the non-negative existential sentence in example (41).

(40)	Qe	aqi	ta	firu-a
	3SG.NFUT	not.exist	some	fight-DVN
	'There was no war (going on at that time).'

(41)	...	roo	kale-qe	doo	ii	ba-n=i	ofi-na.
		two	baby-ASSOC	thing	exist	LIM-3SG.PERS=LOC	marsupium-3SG.PERS
	'... (perhaps) there are two baby ones in its pouch.' (Wondering whether there are baby possums in an adult possum's marsupium.)

Additionally, subject markers in negative existential constructions must be third person singular. For example, in (42), below, it can be seen that although the subject phrase tai toqa ‘some peopleʼ is plural and human, the corresponding subject marker qe is third person singular.

(42)	Qe	aqi	tai	toqa	qi	laa	aququa	naqi
	3SG.NFUT	not.exist	some.PL	people	LOC	IN	island	this
	"There are no people (living) on (lit.: in) this island."

Double negative construction

The third strategy used to express negation in Toqabaqita is the double negative construction, which involves the negative verb aqi and negative subject markers in combination. This construction is more common than the simple negative.

Broadly speaking, the double negative involves two negative clauses used sequentially. The first of these may be considered a “mini-clause” involving a third person subject marker and the negative verb aqi. The second clause is a negative event clause that is negated using negative subject markers. The negative event clause does not include a subject phrase, however, a noun phrase corresponding to the subject of this event clause may optionally precede the mini-clause.

Two subtypes of the double negative have been identified; these are referred to as the “general” and “sequential” double negative constructions respectively.

The general double negative

The general double negative is used to negate an event clause. It can be schematised as follows:

(NP)

[qe aqi]

[negative.event.clause]

The NP is optional as indicated by parentheses, while the “mini-clause” qe aqi and the subsequent negative event clause are both obligatory. Example (43) shows the use of the general double negative construction without the optional noun phrase. Example (44) shows a general double negative with the subject noun phrase expressed, and example (45) shows the construction's ungrammaticality when the subject phrase occurs within the negative event clause.

(43)	Qe	aqi	kwasi	riki-a
	3SG.NFUT	NEGV	1SG.NEG	see-SG.OBJ
	"I haven't seen him."

(44)	Nau	qe=aqi	kwasi	thaofa
	1SG	3SG.NFUT=NEGV	1SG.NEG	be.hungry
	"I am not hungry."

(45)	*Qe=aqi	nau	kwasi	thaofa
	3SG.NFUT=NEGV	1SG	1SG.NEG	be.hungry
	("I am not hungry.")

The sequential double negative

The sequential double negative is different from the general double negative in its constituents, semantics, and the contexts in which it occurs.

Firstly, the subject marker in the mini-clause is the third person singular sequential marker, ka. Secondly, the sequential construction only occurs following another clause; the coordinating construction ma 'and' may be optionally used to mark the relationship between these clauses. Finally, where the general double negative expresses a general negation of the event clause, the sequential double negative expresses “unfulfilled expectation.” In other words, it expresses that circumstances that might have been expected (based on preceding discourse) failed to come to pass.

The sequential double negative construction can be schematised thus:

...

(ma)

(NP)

[ka aqi]

([negative.event.clause])

It should be noted immediately that although this construction has been identified as a double negative, the negative event clause in this construction is grammatically optional. In which case, “in clauses expressing unfulfilled expectations aqi also functions as a lexical verb.”

Example (46) shows this construction with the negative event clause omitted.

(46)	Sa	keki	lae	mai,	ma	ka	aqi
	IRR	3PL.FUT	go	VENT	and	3SG.SEQ	not.be.so
	"They should have come but did not." "They were expected to come but did not."

While the negative event clause is grammatically optional, many contexts can be found where it is expressed. Examples (47) and (48) below illustrate the use of this construction with an expressed negative event clause.

(47)	Kamiliqa	mili	lio,	ka	aqi
	1PL(EXCL)	1PL(EXCL).NFUT	look	3SG.SEQ	NEGV
	misi	riki-a	ta	wane
	1PL(EXCL).NEG	see-3.OBJ	some	person
	"We looked (but) did not see anybody."

(48)	Nau	ku	soe-toqo-na		boqo,	ma
	1SG	1SG.NFUT	ask-TEST-3SG.OBJ		ASRT	and
	ka	aqi	si	oli-si		nau
	3SG.SEQ	NEGV	3SG.NEG	return-TR		1SG
	"I did ask him, but (lit.: and) he did not answer me."

Conventions and Abbreviations

The following table lists the conventions and abbreviations used in this page.

1	first person
2	second person
3	third person
ADD	additive
ASRT	assertive
ASSOC	associative
CAUS	causative
CLF	classifier
COM	comitative
DU	dual
DVN	deverbal noun
EXCL	exclusive
FUT	future
GENP	general preposition
IDENT	identifier
IN	inessive
INCL	inclusive
IPFV	imperfective
IRR	irrealis
LIM	limiter
LOC	(general) locative
n.	noun
NEG	negative
NEGV	negative verb
NFUT	nonfuture
NMLZ	nominaliser
O	direct object
OBJ	object
PERS	personal
PL	plural
PREC	precedentive
PRF	perfect
PROFORE	prenominal foregrounder
PRSMKR	person marker
RDP	reduplication
REL	relative clause/phrase marker
S, SUBJ	subject
SBEN	self-benefactive
SEQ	sequential
SG	singular
TR	transitive (suffix)
V	verb
VENT	ventive
X	'other' constituent, e.g. adverbial
=	cliticisation
-	word-internal morpheme boundary

External links

• Paradisec has a number of collections that include Toʼabaita language materials, including two collections of Arthur Capell's materials (AC1, AC2).

References

• Lichtenberk, F. 2008. A Grammar of Toqabaqita. De Gruyter:Berlin/Boston.
• Lewis, M. P., Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. 2015. Ethnoloq. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Eighteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Available online at http://www.ethnologue.com Accessed 2015-03-23.)
• Lynch,J. 2002. Typological Overview in Oceanic Languages. Curzon.
• Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspelmath, Martin & Bank, Sebastian. 2015. Glottolog 2.4. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at http://glottolog.org, Accessed on 2015-04-07.)