Bavanda

Bavanda
Spoken in:	Maritima
Total speakers	19,000
Origin	Samoan, Tongan
Language family	Austronesian
Regulated by	Ministry of Language

Bavanda (IPA: [ba.ˈβãː.da] (native), [bə.ˈvɑːn.də] or [bə.ˈvæn.də] (American), also written as Bavānda) is an Austronesian language spoken in the district of Maritima. There is an Eastern and a Western variant. The Eastern is considered standard.

The former politicial party before being closed down due to racist remarks,

A bavanda rebel

 Samoan Power was the only party to think Bavanda should become the official language of the Harvian Islands since it is against American influences.

The language is controled and regulated by the harvian politicial ministry, the Ministry of Language.

Phonology

Consonants

Place of articulation →	Labial	Coronal			Dorsal		Glottal
	Bi­la­bial	Den­tal	Al­veo­lar	Post­al­veo­lar	Pa­la­tal	Ve­lar
Manner of articulation ↓
Nasal	m	n				ŋ
Plosive	p  b	t  d				k  g	ʔ
Fricative	ɸ  β	(θ)¹	s	(ʃ)¹				h
Approximant					j
Tap		ɾ²
Lateral Fricative		ɬ
Lateral Approx­imant		l²

1. Only in English loanwords.
2. Allophones.

All voiceless plosives may be aspirated, except for /ʔ/.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e²		o³
Mid		(ə)¹
Open-mid	ɛ²		ɔ³
Open	a		ɒ

1. Only used in unstressed syllables.
2. /e/ only occurs not nasalized, /ɛ/ only nasalized.
3. /o/ only occurs not nasalized, /ɔ/ only nasalized.

Vowels can be nasalized and can be long and short.

Grammar

Nouns

There are no cases, only particles. Plural is constructed using reduplication, f.e.: damāroa (man) - dandamāroa (men) and bola (animal) - bōbola (animals). A plural noun always has a long vowel. In order to indicate a group or a collection, the noun is repeated: fare (house) - fare-fare (a group of houses, a village). When indicating something is small, the last syllable is repeated, f.e.: pīre (bird) - pīrere (small bird, tropical perching bird). This system of reduplication can change the meaning of a word as well in some rare instances, f.e. ’aruo (forest) - ’aruo’(u)o (tree). This can even lead to reduplication in phases, a sort of comparison with nouns. F.e. pei (house) - pepei (village) - peipei (town) - pepeipei (large group of houses, city).

Numerals

zero sīru, ’inōtana
one tahi
two ’uā
three tolu
four fā
five nima
six ’ono
seven fitu
eight valu
nine hīa
ten tangalu
twenty ’uangalu
thirty tolungalu
fourty fangalu
fifty nimangalu
sixty ’onuangalu, ’onongalu
seventy fitungalu
eighty valungalu
ninty jangalu
hundred so

Verbs

The conjunctive is constructed by reduplicating the last syllable, f.e.: kalopēda (bless) - kalopēdada. The imperative is constructed by duplicating the stressed vowel: kalopēda - kalopēpeda.

Pronouns are indicated by adding a short prefix, f.e.: ’ārofa (to love) -> ’a’ārofa (I love). If the verb begins with a consonant, an extra -e- is added: sau (to come) -> da’esau (you come). When the pronoun is omitted, an infinitive is formed. If the particle u is preceding the verb, an adjective is formed, compare ’ārofa (to love) - ’u ’ārofa (loved sth).

Example

• Se ’a’elai ’i moa ’ālu doavai: Se (past particle) ’a’e- (I) lai (eat) ’i (accusative particle) moa (chicken) ’ālu (I) doavai (yesterday): I ate chicken yesterday (not somebody else).