Nouns with masculine gender are more common than those with feminine gender. When two items are grouped together and they have different gender, the feminine gender is used for agreement
purposes. 43
metine l-ire
moto roum
m-e man
3m-with wife
they.fd 3fd-go
A man and his wife, they go. Names
Among the Olo-speaking people names are of three types: traditional names, Christian names, and descriptive names. The traditional names are often thought of as the “real” name. The child is named
after someone and normally given that person’s traditional name. The Christian name normally comes out of a name book. Children also take their father’s name for a last name, and wives take their hus-
band’s name. The descriptive name is given by others to a person. These often sound cruel or pejora- tive to western ears, but are not meant that way. Some of these names are: Mingim olpe ‘Bad ears deaf’
and Urou oli ‘Bad leg’. One of the reasons for giving these names is name taboos. People cannot say the “real” name of certain of their in-laws. This allows them to refer to the person by “name” without
breaking the custom.
2.3.2.3 Adjectives
Adjectives modify nouns. Historically adjectives in Olo are derived from both nouns and verbs Staley 1994a. This means that some adjectives in Olo share characteristics with nouns and others
with verbs. Those that come from nouns agree with the head noun in number, using a plural marker, as in 44.
44 a. ki k-alei
tifa funi
b. ki k-aplei
tifa funi-mpe
I 1s-eat.3m
banana ripe
I 1s-eat.3p
banana ripe-
PL
I eat a ripe banana. I eat ripe bananas.
Those that come from verbs agree not only in number, but also in gender for the singular and dual forms as in 45 and 46.
45 a. ki k-ulu-wo
ninge kumpu
b. ki k-ulu-wenge
eple kumpu-nge
I 1s-see-3m son
small I
1s-see-3md children
small-md I see a small boy.
I see two small boys. c.
ki k-ulu-ene ningio
kumpu-ne d. ki k-ulu-eme
eple kumpu-me
I 1s-see-3f
daughter small-f
I 1s-see-3fd
children small-fd
I see a small girl. I see two small girls.
e. ki k-ulu-wepe
eple kumpu-pe
I 1s-see-3p
children small-
PL
I see small children. In 46 the agreement is based on the number and gender of the referents in the speech act situation.
The same forms are used for the third person and could be substituted into the examples given in 31 for the word kumpu ‘small’.
18 The Olo Language
46 a. ki
ili b. ku
lingi I
big.m we
big.md I am big.
We are big. male speaker
male speaker about 2 men
c. ki
ine d. ku
limi e.
ku lipi
I big.f
we big.fd
we big.p
I am big. We are big.
We are big. female speaker
female speaker about 2 women
2.3.2.4 Numerals
Olo has three basic numerals, one, two, and five. All other numerals are built as additives of this base system. The largest of the three forms is given first, then the next largest, and finally the smallest.
The numbers are added together. So three is rendered as ‘two one’. The numerals for one and two differ depending on the gender of the noun counted. Table 2.7 gives the numerals in Olo from one to ten, for
both the masculine and feminine genders.
Table 2.7. Olo numerals from 1 to 10 Numeral
Masculine Feminine
1 niliye
ninpiye 2
wingestwinges wiem
3 winges niliye
wiem ninpiye 4
winges winges wiem wiem
5 eti plen
eti plen hand side 6
eti plen eti plen ninpiye
7 eti plen winges
eti plen wiem 8
eti plen winges niliye eti plen wiem ninpiye
9 eti plen winges winges
eti plen wiem wiem 10
eti plen eti plen eti plen eti plen
many wuru
The number system can be extended to include feet. I have heard eti plen eti plen uro plen uro plen ‘hand side, hand side, foot side, foot side’ for 20. This is very unusual. In many areas the numbering
system above 2 or 3 has fallen out of use in favor of Tok Pisin numbers. When an Olo speaker counts on his fingers, he uses the reverse process to mark a counted number. Five fingers spread wide is not 5, but
0. As something is counted one finger is clasped into the palm. A fist means 5.
2.3.2.5 Free Pronouns
