Talk:Mota language

	Language portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Languages, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of languages on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LanguagesWikipedia:WikiProject LanguagesTemplate:WikiProject Languageslanguage
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Melanesia: Vanuatu

	Oceania portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Melanesia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Melanesia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MelanesiaWikipedia:WikiProject MelanesiaTemplate:WikiProject MelanesiaMelanesia
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Vanuatu.

A dictionary of the language of Mota, Sugarloaf Island, Banks Islands. [Microform] (1896)

https://archive.org/details/adictionarylang00misgoog

Rajmaan (talk) 15:19, 9 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

MTA -iu/-ui reflecting PTB -i/-u

There are words in MTA such as va-toliu "third", for va-tol, a normal reflex of PTB *va-tolu. According to Codrington the use of -iu/-ui to "recover" the lost vowel seems to have been of a dialectal nature. But there are words found in the Common Prayer, such as esu "life" < PTB *esu, that indicate the irregular preservation of the final high vowel. What circumstances would have led to Mota becoming a simplified mess compared to Tolomako or Nggela and when? Kwékwlos (talk) 09:57, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It is actually not that messy: this phenomenon concerns exclusively the handling of the -i suffix [<POc *-qi], which is found on the citation form of inalienable nouns and of numeral adjectives. (Hence, roots like esu are not concerned, because not suffixed.)

So, with that -i suffix, expected forms include __a-i, __o-i, __e-i (e.g. matai 'eye', sogoi 'relative'…). When the root's final vowel is /u/, the expected form __u-i alternates with a metathesized __iu (e.g. qatui ~ qatiu 'head'; tolui ~ toliu 'egg'; va-tolu-i → vatoliu 'third') — along dialectal lines. As for roots ending in /i/, they never surface as **__i-i but as a dissimilative form __iu (e.g. tasiu 'brother'; va-vatiu 'fourth'…). As usual with Codrington's Mota, it's all quite regular and predictable. -- Womtelo (talk) 10:55, 29 January 2022 (UTC).[reply]

"Mota langauge" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Mota langauge has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2024 December 11 § Mota langauge until a consensus is reached. J 947 ‡ ^edits 00:03, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]