The case of pidgin and creole languages - Linguistics
The case of pidgin and creole languages - Linguistics
The case of pidgin and creole languages - Linguistics
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Katseff Page Page numbers<br />
earlier, is Tolai (or Kuanua), spoken on the isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> New Britain by about 61,000 people<br />
(Tolai, Ethnologue). Tolai's spatial terms follow:<br />
Tolai expression English equivalent(s)<br />
kan ra from, out <strong>of</strong><br />
ta ra in, onto, from (the store), in, through<br />
navavai under<br />
paparai beside<br />
namur behind<br />
vana ngaina in line with<br />
Table 5. Tolai spatial expressions <strong>and</strong> their English equivalents.<br />
Beyond those listed above, there are two other <strong>languages</strong> in this area where space has<br />
been explicitly investigated.<br />
1. Yélî Dnye.<br />
This language was investigated for the way it expressed spatial relations in 71 spatial<br />
relations depicted with line drawings. A typological summary <strong>of</strong> its spatial terms follows<br />
(adapted from Levinson et al 2003):<br />
number adpositions: more than 50; more than 25 are basic spatial terms<br />
number spatial nominals: 3-5 less important terms<br />
locative <strong>case</strong>: none<br />
positional/locative verbs: 3 (sit, st<strong>and</strong>, hang)<br />
fine distinctions: unusual distinctions, e.g. 'attached by spiking'
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