Minimal pairs

Stops

Ughele contains bilabial, alveolar and velar stops. These are /b + p/, /d + t/ and /g + k/ respectively, as well as voiced and unvoiced pairs for all plosives. /ba/ and /pa/ /made/ and /mate/ ('four' and 'die/dead') /poga/ and /poka/ ('to make pudding/pudding' and 'nail') All voiced stops are pre-nasalised, however the degree of this varies between speakers. Pronunciation of this runs from barely audible nasalisation to almost fully nasalised segments. E.g. /b/ → /b̃/, /d/ → /d̃/, /g/ → /g̃/

• Nasal and oral pairs for all voiced stops e.g. /b/ → /m/, /d/ → /n/, /g/ → /ŋ/
• Voiced bilabial nasals and non-nasals e.g. /ma/ and /ba/, /na/ and /da/
• Voiced velar nasals and non-nasals e.g. /mamaŋa/ 'open' → /mamaga/ 'a fish species'
• Voiced bilabial, alveolar and velar stops e.g. /mabo/ 'tired' → /mado/ 'happy' → /mago/ 'spirit, devil'
• Unvoiced stops /ka/ (negation indicator), /pa/ (location phrase indicator), /ta/ (possession indicator)
• Voiced bilabial/alveolar/velar nasals e.g. /madi/ 'obey', /nadi/ 'sagopalm pudding', /ŋadi/ 'sharp, long'

Alveolar trill

There is only one found in Ughele; this is in the lexeme /arozo/ ('rope').

Fricatives

• Labiodental, alveolar, velar and glottal /v/, /s/, /z/, /ɣ/ and /h/
• Labiodental /v/ and velar /ɣ/ are voiced and → /ɣoi/ 'you' and /voi/ 'to put'
• Glottal fricatives are unvoiced /puha/ 'to wipe' and /pusa/ 'to tie'
• Voiced and unvoiced alveolars /soi/ 'hot drink' and /zoi/ 'penis'

The affricate d͡ʒ

This post-alveolar affricate is sometimes realised as a palatal nasal stop /ɲ/, although this is relatively rare in spoken language and therefore is speaker-dependent.

/d͡ʒ/ → /ɲ/ ~ /d͡ʒ/

Thus ngajiri ('angry') may be pronounced /ŋad͡ʒiri/ or /ŋapiri/.

Approximants

Ughele contains one alveolar lateral approximant /l/ and one labial velar /w/. However, /w/ only occurs in a small set of loanwords from English and Roviana (another Solomon Island language originally developed for trade).

'Window' – /wida/

'Week' – /wiki/

'Win' – /wini/

'Year' – vaseni /waseni/

Minimal pairs based on manner of articulation

• Voiced alveolar plosive /mada/ 'to let', and fricative, /maza/ 'flesh'
• Unvoiced alveolar plosive /tabu/ 'holy', and fricative /sabu/ 'hunt'
• Voiced velar plosive /gu/ '1st/p possessive', and fricative /ɣu/ 'just'

Independent pronouns

Independent pronouns may act as the head of a noun phrase, taking on the forms of subject, direct object, or indirect object as a complement to prepositions (Frostad, 2012, p. 81). They may also appear in possessive constructions.

Above is an example of the third-person plural pronoun rie and first-person plural exclusive pronoun ghita in noun phrases headed by pronouns. The numeral modifier ka ru follows the pronoun head, whereas it would typically precede a noun head (Frostad, 2012, p. 82).

Ughele has object marking clitics and two different sets of subject markers, and these occur in specific fixed positions relative to the verb (Frostad, 2012, 169).

Object clitics

Object clitics are pronominal forms, which only occur with verb stems and only mark direct object (Frostad, 2012, 85).

Transitive verbs rarely occur without object marking clitics (Frostad, 2012, p. 169), and are either attached directly to the verb stem (2), or follow the transitive suffix, either –i (3) or –ni (4).

First-person singular exclusive object clitic –(a)u attached to verb stem

Third-person singular object clitic –a attached to transitive suffix –i

Third-person singular object clitic –a attached to transitive suffix –ni

Object clitics may be the only referent to the object in the clause (5) or they may occur with a coreferential noun phrase (6) (Frostad, 2012, p. 85).

Second-person singular –(a)gho

Second-person singular object clitic –(a)gho with coreferential noun phrase second-person singular independent pronoun –ghoi:

Preverbal subject partial clitics

Preverbal subject marking pronouns in Ughele can appear in the form of partial clitics. These clitics precede the verb complex, but only in very specific constructions (Frostad, p. 82). They cliticize to two particles, the homophonous imperative mood marker ma (7), and conjunction ma 'then' (8), and they occur as independent forms indicating pivots in complex clauses (9) (Frostad, 2012, p. 171). This aspect of Ughele's grammar bears resemblance to that of three of its nearest neighbouring languages, Hoava, Roviana and Marovo, with that of Marovo being the most similar (Frostad, 2012, p. 171).

First-person plural inclusive preverbal subject clitic –da attached to mood marker ma

Second-person singular preverbal subject clitic –mu attached to conjunction ma

Third-person plural preverbal subject independent form di

Postverbal subject pronouns

In Ughele, postverbal subject pronouns overlap completely with preposed possessive pronouns (Frostad, 2012, p. 84). Postverbal subject pronouns mark various types of foci, where the pronouns would refer to the focused constituent (Frostad, 2012, p. 85). Below is an example of the third-person plural postverbal subject pronoun used in a sentence.

Demonstratives functioning as interrogatives

Intermediate distance particles are often found to be used the least, with an implied distance, a common occurrence in Oceanic languages identified by Lynch, Ross and Crowley.^[5] As a result of this implied meaning, these particles can often take other grammatical functions. Frostad describes the common phoneme between the intermediate singular particle and the interrogative 'what' in Ughele, za.^[2] The following example is from Frostad's grammar of Ughele, demonstrating the aforementioned dual function.

It is demonstrated in this example that za, when paired with other articles, endures a function adjustment. The article na signifies a noun and when paired with za, indicates an unknown noun, therefore becoming 'what' in the English translation. This is a similar process for pa, a morpheme signifying a locative function. When used in conjunction with za, it functions as a temporal interrogative. These are not the only forms of the interrogatives [what] and [where]; there are grammatical words that occupy the same meaning in interrogative clauses.

Question particle

In Ughele, there is a single question particle, a-.^[2] This marker has a purely grammatical function denoting the sentence as a question. It is usually paired with one of the above interrogatives. This marker is not used exclusively; rather, it is a marker denoting conversational foci used in specific sentence types outlined below.

Simple interrogatives

A locative interrogative clause in Ughele generally follows the pattern: NP [pa] [vei],^[2] fronted by the noun phrase, then using the preposition locative pa. This kind of question is used within brief exchanges, attempting to gain new knowledge quickly.

Context-dependent interrogatives

Without a preposition, vei gains the affix a-, becoming avei and it appears before the noun phrase: avei NP. This occurs when the question is influenced by pragmatic focus, a newly understood meaning based on what a speaker has informed a hearer.^[7][8] This kind of sentence would be used during an extended conversation either as a response or a concurrent idea, in contrast to the former as a simple interrogative or a conversation starter.

As evidenced above, there is a clear connection between demonstratives in Ughele and the morphology of interrogatives, signified by the common phonology of 'what' and 3SG as za. This is exclusive to the anaphoric pretext of the conversation. Therefore, na-za ('what') is a reference to a specific question from conversational context. This applies to pa-za ('where') too.

Possessive constructions using prepositions ta and taga

Two of the three indirect possessive constructions in Ughele use the prepositions ta or taga. The structure of the construction is identical for either preposition which is used in a prepositional phrase which follows the possessum noun, as in (15) and (16). Within the PP is the preposition, either ta or taga, followed by the possessor noun expressed in a noun phrase. While not as commonly as the direct possessive construction, ta and taga can be used for intrinsically unalienable possession such as body parts, as in (15). (Frostad, 2012 p.127) Indirect possessive constructions using ta are the most frequently used in Frostad's 2012 corpus, being fairly versatile and widely spread across situations. Both ta and taga can be used for kinship terms, inalienable body parts, unowned possessions such as names, as well as for actions carried out by the referent of the possessor noun. (Frostad, 2012, p.130)

Possessive constructions using a possessive pronoun

Preposed possessive pronouns which modify a possessum noun make up one of the three indirect possessive marking strategies in Ughele (Frostad, p. 86). The possessor may or may not be expressed in a noun phrase.

The previous two examples illustrates the flexibility in the possessive pronoun construction when expressing a possessor noun. In (17) the possessor is expressed in a noun phrase, specifically the second-person singular pronoun ghoi, while (18) does not express a possessor at all.

All other forms of possessive pronouns are compiled in the table below.