Nouns Tayo nouns do not display much internal
morphology, with some number and
definiteness information encoded in
modifiers and
clitics outside of the noun.
Pluralisation Tayo nouns can be
pluralised with the modifier , which can be contracted to or . This is placed before the noun as shown in example (a): (a) PL nun-the/this SI work “The/these nuns work”
Determiner/Demonstrative Another nominal modifier is the
clitic -la which can optionally follow nouns to introduce something new or to point to something within reach. This modifier, also present in
New Caledonian French, occurs frequently, especially with
English loanwords and monosyllabic words. This is demonstrated in example (b): (b)
ma uver kapoa-la I open tin-the/this “I open the/this tin”
Possession Possession is denoted with the preposition
pu, placed after the possessed and before the possessor. This is shown in example (c): (c)
fij pu ʃef daughter PREP chief “The chief’s daughter”
Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns are divided into two categories, characterised by Ehrhart and Revis (2013) as dependent pronouns and independent pronouns. The dependent pronouns denote the
subject of a clause, and the independent pronouns denote a range of functions including the
object, emphatic subject,
reflexive subject or
possessor. In the dual and 1st and 2nd person plural, both types of pronoun have the same form. Example (d) below shows the dependent pronoun sa in subject position and the independent pronoun
mwa as a direct object. Meanwhile, example (e) shows the independent pronoun
lja as an indirect object, as it is after the preposition ave. (d)
sa wa mwa they see me “They see me” (e)
nu tro aːᵐbete ave lja depi taler we too annoyed with him/her since just.now “We too are annoyed with him since just now” Independent pronouns can also function as emphatic subjects. In these cases, the dependent pronoun functions like a clitic, characterised by Ehrart and Revis (2013) as a subject index. This is shown in example (f): (f)
mwa ma malad I I (SI) sick “I (emphatic) am sick” A final use for independent pronouns is in
possessive constructions. These are identical to how possession is expressed with nouns, with the independent pronoun placed after the possessive preposition pu, as shown in example (g): (g)
kas pu mwa house PREP me “My house” (Ehrhart & Revis 2013)
Verbs Tense, Aspect and Modality Tense and aspect, and modality are encoded in markers preceding the verb, as shown in the table below:
Negation The particle pa is placed before the verb to express
negation, in contrast to the French source word pas, which follows the verb. This is shown in example (h): (h)
ma pa ule I NEG want “I do not like to”
Imperatives Imperative verbs are formed with an unmodified verb base, as in example (i): (i)
ndesa nde lao, twa come.down from up you “Come down from up there, you!”
Causatives The marker
fe is said before a verb to denote a
causative action, as in example (j): (j)
la fe plan ver-la s/he make full glass-the/this “He filled the glass”
Questions Polar questions are formed the same way like a statement, but with
rising intonation, like is often done in spoken French. This is shown in example (k): (k)
ta kone ke se mama pu lja? you know that PRESV mother POSS him/her “Do you know that she is his/her mother?” Content questions likewise are phrased like statements, except with an
interrogative pronoun in place of a
noun phrase, shown in example (l): (l)
ta war ki? you see who “Who did you see?”
Structural Formation Siegel's (2008) analysis of
tense, mood and aspect marking in Kanak
substrate languages and Tayo Creole supports the theory that structural features from substrate languages (i.e. in this case, the
Kanak languages) are mostly likely to transfer into the
creole when they are shared by most of the substrate languages, and the
lexifier language (i.e. in this case,
French). For example,
future tense was marked in two out of three languages analysed as a pre-verbal tense marker. French also frequently express future tense using the verb
aller (‘go’), as a pre-verbal marker. As this verb is most often realised in the 3rd person singular form
va, this form was transferred into Tayo Creole as the future tense marker. Likewise,
progressive aspect marking occurs in all three languages, and French uses the phrase
en train de with a similar function in pre-verbal position. As such,
atra nde was transferred into the creole language as a pre-verbal progressive marker. == Sociolinguistic situation ==