Mono-Alu language
Austronesian language of the Solomon Islands
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
'Mono-Alu, also known as Mono, is an Austronesian language spoken by approximately 6,600 people on the islands of Mono, Alu, and Fauro in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. "Mono-Alu". Ethnologue (26 ed.). Retrieved March 19, 2026. It is the primary language of Mono Island in the Treasury Islands as well as Alu Island and Fauro Island in the Shortland Islands.[2]
| Mono-Alu | |
|---|---|
| Mono, Alu | |
| Native to | Solomon Islands |
| Region | Western Province |
Native speakers | 5,000 (2020)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mte |
| Glottolog | mono1273 |
| ELP | Mono (Solomon Islands) |
 | |
  Mono-Alu The Mono-Alu language is spoken across the Western Province.[1] | |
| Coordinates: 7.08°S 155.85°E | |
The language area is located near the northwest border of the Solomon Islands, south and southeast of Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea.[1] The communities are often collectively referred to by the acronym FAMOA, representing Fauro, Mono, and Alu Islands.[1]
While the 1999 census reported 2,944 speakers,[3] research informed by community reports suggests a significantly higher population.[1] The total number of speakers was estimated to exceed 5,000 in 2020, with approximately 3,000 speakers on Alu Island, 1,500 on Fauro Island, and 800 on Mono Island, as well as diaspora communities in Honiara and other islands in the Western Province.[1] The language is the primary language spoken on the islands along with Solomon Islands Pijin.[1]
Orthography
- The alphabet has 19 letters: A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, and V.[4]
- R was traditionally used more than D, but D is used more often in loanwords or in names that have been introduced into the language. It is also used to represent the allophonic variant [d] of the phoneme /ɾ/.[1]
- The letter V is used to represent the allophonic variant [v] of the phoneme /b/.
- The letter H is sometimes replaced by F.
- The length distinctions of vowels and nasals are not represented in the current orthography.
- Although not in the alphabet, the letters J and Z can be used to represent the marginal phonemes /d͡ʒ/ and /z/ respectively, which only occur in loanwords.
Phonology
Consonants
There are 13 phonemic consonants in Mono-Alu.
- /b/ can also be heard as fricatives [β, v] under certain conditions.
- /ɡ/ can be heard as [ɣ] in free variation.
- /ɾ/ can also be heard as [d] in free variation within word-initial position, or as [dɾ] when following a nasal.
- /u/ and /i/ are heard as glides [w, j] within vowel environments.[2]
Vowels
The Mono-Alu vowel system consists of five phonemic monophthongs and three long vowels.
- /i/ has the allophone [iʲ] and occurs before other vowels (e.g. [sɐpɐiʲɐ] ‘tuber species’, [mɐniʲɔkɔ] ‘papaya’).
- /u/ can occur as [ʊ] in casual speech when the vowel is short, and does not occur in word-final open syllables. The allophone [uʷ] occurs before /i/ and /ɛ/ (e.g. [kuʷisɐ] ‘basket’, [suʷɛlɛ] ‘sleep’).
- /ɔ/ has the allophonic variant [ɔʷ] and it occurs in the exclamation [kɔʷɛ] and is the only instance where this allophone is attested. Elsewhere, it is pronounced as [ɔ].
- /ɐ/ and /ɛ/ do not have allophones.
Syllable structure
The syllable structure can be either (C)V1(V2)(N) or (ʔ)N, where C can be any consonant (including nasals), V can be any vowel, and N can be either /n/ or /ŋ/. The sequence V1V2 represents a long vowel if both Vs are the same phoneme, or a diphthong if they are different. In the syllable pattern (ʔ)N, N is a nasal syllabic nucleus (e.g. [ŋ̍.kɐ] ‘mother’, [ŋ̍.kɔ.tɔ] ‘take, hold’).
In both the coda and nucleic positions, N is always realized as velar [ŋ] before /k/, /g/ /ʔ/, and /h/.[2]
Numerals
The number system of Mono-Alu is very similar to other Austronesian languages.[5] For example, Mono-Alu shares the words for the numbers 'two' (elua) and 'five' (lima) with the Hawaiian language. A word for 'zero' (menna) exists in the language and also holds the meaning of 'nothing.' Fagan identified the numbers from one to ten thousand in Mono-Alu.[2]
| Cardinal | English |
|---|---|
| Menna | zero |
| Kala (or elea) | one |
| Elua | two |
| Episa | three |
| Ehati | four |
| Lima | five |
| Onomo | six |
| Hitu | seven |
| Alu | eight |
| Ulia | nine |
| Lafulu | ten |
| Lafulu rohona elea | eleven |
| Lafulu rohona elua | twelve |
| Lafulu rohona episa | thirteen |
| Lafulu rohona efati | fourteen |
| Lafulu rohona lima | fifteen |
| Lafulu rohona onomo | sixteen |
| Lafulu rohona hitu | seventeen |
| Lafulu rohona alu | eighteen |
| Lafulu rohona ulia | nineteen |
| Elua lafulu (or Tanaoge) | twenty |
| Episa lafulu (or Pisafulu) | thirty |
| Efati lafulu (or Fatiafulu) | forty |
| Lima lafulu (or limafulu) | fifty |
| Onomo lafulu | sixty |
| Fitu lafulu | seventy |
| Alu lafulu | eighty |
| Ulia lafulu (or Siafulu) | ninety |
| Ea latuu | one-hundred |
| Elua latuu | two-hundred |
| Ea kokolei | one-thousand |
| Elua kokolei | two-thousand |
| Lafulu kokolei | ten-thousand |
Mono-Alu also makes use of ordinal numbers. However, only 'first' (famma) is a unique word, and the rest are constructed through affixations.
| Ordinal | English |
|---|---|
| famma | first |
| Fa-elua-naang | second |
| Fa-epis-naana | third |
| Fa-ehati-naana | fourth |
| Fa-lima-naana | fifth |
| Fa-onomo-naana | sixth |
| Fa-hitu-naana | seventh |
| Fa-alu-naana | eighth |
| Fa-ulia-naana | ninth |
| Fa-lafulu-naana | tenth |
Grammar
Pronouns
Mono-Alu, like many other Austronesian languages, uses two separate pronouns for the first-person plural to express clusivity; that is, one first-person plural pronoun is inclusive (including the listener), and the other is exclusive (not including the listener). Mono-Alu does not have third-person pronouns. Fagan translated pronouns and their possessives.[2]
| Pronoun | Obj | Suffix | Other | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person |
singular | mafa | -afa | -gu | sagu | |
| plural | exclusive | mani | -ami | -mang, -ma | samang/sama | |
| inclusive | maita | -ita | -ra | sara | ||
| 2nd person |
singular | maito | -o | -ng | sang | |
| plural | maang | -ang | -mia | samia | ||
| 3rd person |
singular | --- | -i, -ng | -na | sana | |
| plural | --- | -ri, -iri | -ria | saria | ||
Affixes
Mono-Alu is very specific regarding adverbs and other verb affixes. Verbs can be altered with a prefix, infix, and suffix.
| Prefixes | Infixes | Suffixes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ang | relative prefix, alternate forms an, ai, a'nta | fa | infix denoting completion | ai | there, away |
| fa | causative prefix, fa becomes f before a, alternate form ha | fang | one another (reciprocal infix), alternate form fan | ma | hither, thither, alternate form ama |
| ta | infix or prefix showing action or state. | fero | elsewhere, to somewhere else | ||
| isa | together, at the same time, alternate sa | ||||
| male | again (also occurs independently) | ||||
| mea | makes a plural | ||||
| meka | until tired, for a very long time, alternate form meko |
| a | place where or whether,[clarification needed] alternate form ang occurs after a |
| ng | added to the first of two names gives the meaning 'and', alternate form m |
| ua | denotes addition, 'and', 'with' |
| -a | 'of', especially before -ang, alternate forms an, ang, aan |
| afa- | 'what?' |
| -ata | often found after verbs and other words, alternate forms eta, ita, ota, uta |
| ga | particle, most often after the first word in a sentence, untranslatable; 'so, therefore' at the beginning of a sentence, also used with pronoun forms to emphasise them: gafa, gami, gai, gaina, gang, etc. |
| -nana | equivalent to copula, alternate form nina |
| -titi | strengthens the idea of repetition or duration |
Grammatical gender
There are two ways of indicating differences of grammatical gender:
- By different words: - e.g.
- Tiong 'man' – Betafa 'woman'
- Fanua 'men' – Talaiva 'women'
- Lalaafa 'headman' – Mamaefa 'head woman'
- Tua-na 'his grandfather' – Tete-na 'his grandmother'
- Kanega 'old man' (husband) – Magota 'old woman' (wife)
- By using an ordinal indicative of sex: – e.g.
- Kui manuale 'baby' (male) – Kui batafa 'baby' (female)
- Boo sule 'boar' – Boo tuaru 'sow' (sule and tuaru are used for animals only)
In other cases, there is no distinction between masculine, feminine, and neuter.[citation needed]
Adverbs
Some exceptions within the rules of Mono-Alu have been discovered.[6]
Two adverbs of place, instead of being written with a double consonant, are written with only one accented consonant.
- e.g. Nai (instead of NNai) – 'here'
- 'Nao (instead of NNao) – 'there'
Instead of the aspirate h, the letter f can be used:
Articles
There are no definite articles in Alu. The number elea ('one') is used as an indefinite article.[2]