Grammar

For more information on Mato grammar, please consult the Mato Grammar Sketch (2013), available on the SIL-PNG Language Resources website.

Typology

Mato is an Austronesian language, and its typology is typical of Oceanic languages. These characteristics include:

• four sets of pronominal elements: free pronouns, subject prefixes, object suffixes and possessor suffixes
• duals and trials in the free pronouns (but not in the other sets)
• fairly restricted verbal derivational morphology, limited to causative, directional, distributive and intensifying affixes, as well as reduplication
• productive nominalisation of verbs
• SVO order in transitive clauses
• prepositions (with one clitic postposition)
• verb serialisation.

The following features, however, are less typical of Oceanic languages in general, though all of them are found in the wider New Guinea area:

• no distinction between direct and indirect possession (and hence no possessive classifiers)
• no prenominal articles (though there is an article-like enclitic)
• with few exceptions, transitivity not explicitly marked on the verb
• a reduced numeral system, with few Proto-Oceanic reflexes
• an existential-copular verb
• a complex category of noun-like adjectives
• clause-final negation
• a relatively large number of conjunctions.