Maskelynes language

Maskelynes, or Kuliviu (Uliveo), is an Oceanic language spoken on the Maskelyne Islands off south Malekula, Vanuatu.

Consonants

 * are in free variation as unreleased or unvoiced  word-finally or before a consonant
 * is also in free variation as nasal word-finally, especially among young speakers
 * is realized as a voiceless among some speakers, especially young
 * are unreleased word-finally or before a consonant (though  has never been recorded before a consonant)
 * lose their labialization word-finally when not followed by a vowel and before
 * is in free variation as trilled (tapped  in Peskarus) before  and sometimes before
 * is before voiced consonants
 * are [] before voiceless consonants and word-finally
 * is in free variation with for some speakers
 * are vocalic when in nucleus following

Vowels

 * is near-close between front consonants
 * is close-mid word-finally
 * is after labiovelarized consonants or before
 * are realised as single morphemes,
 * is realised as front between front consonants, and near-close  when proceeded or preceded by back consonants
 * is front between front consonants

Voiceless vowel
A voiceless occurs at the ends of words. It is uncertain if it is an allophone of or a separate phoneme

Phonotactics
Possible syllable structures in Maskelynes: (C/S)V(S)(C)

Verbs
The verbs of Maskelynes are agglutinative, mostly being modified by prefixes, though the stem of a verb can stand on its own. These prefixes encode for, in order of appearance in verb: 1. tense-aspect-modes; 2. subject, person and number; 3. various modes, including realis and irrealis; 4. two tense-modes; 5. reduplication. The object of a sentence is encoded by a suffix.

Examples of verbal agglutination:

sa-g-e-mun-i

PROH-2SG.SUBJ-IRR-drink-3SG.OBJ

Don't you drink it.

go-to-madha-mun-mun-i

2SG.SUBJ-REL-IMM.PST-ITER~drink-3SG.OBJ

You who just now kept drinking it

Reduplication
Reduplication in Maskelynes has various usages, and can encode for e.g. plurality, habituality, iterative aspect, etc.