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The glottal stop in Nasarowaqa Fijian and other Oceanic languages

Tamata, Apolonia (2007) The glottal stop in Nasarowaqa Fijian and other Oceanic languages. The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji.

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Abstract

This thesis identifies the sources of the glottal stop in Nasarowaqa Fijian and in other Oceanic languages seeing that some glottal stops are reflexes of the Austronesian glottal stop phoneme while some are independent developments within the language themselves. Double glottalling, as it occurs in Nasarowaqa Fijian, is described and notes that while k-glottalling is a typical Oceanic phoneme and t-glottalling is not so common, both forms of glottalling occur in Nasarowaqa Fijian. This thesis also describes k-glottalling amongst children of Lau and posits a possible link between speakers that replace /k/ with the glottal stop. The multidialectal language situation in Nasarowaqa is examined. This study identifies and describes the dialect of the place and gives an account as to why the people are not speaking the Nasarowaqa Fijian. In addition, this study notes that phonological similarities shared between Nasarowaqa Fijian and the dialects of Namuavoivoi and Nakalou and classes them as a communalect in the Eastern Fijian group of languages of the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. Chapter one provides the background to the study and states its aims. Chapter two outlines the ethnography of the people of Nasarowaqa while language and the language situation are described in chapter three. Explanations of language change especially through contact is summarised in chapter four and chapter five discusses the features and uses of the glottal stop. The occurrence of the glottal stop in Oceanic languages and their sources are presented in chapter six while chapter seven discusses the occurrence of the glottal stop in Fijian. Chapter eight concludes the thesis by responding to the issues raised in chapter one focusing on the glottal stop, glottalling and language use in Nasarowaqa and in the Oceanic languages.

Item Type: Other
Subjects: P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions: School of Pacific Arts, Communication and Education (SPACE)
Depositing User: Apolonia Tamata
Date Deposited: 08 Mar 2022 22:59
Last Modified: 08 Mar 2022 22:59
URI: http://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/13300
UNSPECIFIED

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