Aspects of the structure of the Ùa Pou dialect of the Marquesan language

Abstract

This thesis is made up of three parts; the first is an outline and discussion of the various approaches taken in the description of Polynesian languages in the last 30 years. It provides background discussion of the model of description used in the rest of the thesis. The second deals with the phonology of the 'Ua Pou dialect, concentrating in particular on two areas; the phonetics of the glottal stop phoneme, and penultimate vowel extension. The latter is a feature which has received no mention in any literature to date but is the most noticeable suprasegmental phonetic difference between the Marquesan dialects and the other Eastern Polynesian languages. The last four chapters describe the structure of phrases in the 'Ua Pou dialect. The first two of these deals with the centripetal particles of the noun and verb phrase respectively, that is, the particles within phrases which modify the base of that phrase. Particles which relate phrases to other phrases, that is, the prepositions and ai, are dealt with separately in the last two chapters since their description requires some comments on the syntax of the language.