in the bush. The villages of the Maututu dialect are Matililiu, Gomu, Apulpul, Baikakea, Bubuu, Mataururu, Kiava and Evase, all grouped on the eastern coast of the Nakanai area, between Toiru River and Cape Koas. These are all United Church Villages and have been influenced therefore by Tolai-speaking missionaries and Nassa shell traders, plus contact with Melamela to the east, Bileki and Vele to the west, and the inland languages Longeinga, Wasi and Kol. Grammar Sociolinguistic choices The noun article is obligatory when referring to an object, and when addressing an object, the noun article is never used. Avoiding the use of names in speech is a way of showing esteem, whether one is talking about a person in reference or when addressing them. To use a person's name without good reason is seen as a form of disrespect. Instead, kinship terms are preferred. Esteem, in face–to–face conversations, is also displayed by referring to the addressee in the third person. Syntax Thematic roles In terms of case relations, "Nakanai role structure operates morphologically as follows: there are six contrastive cases, Actor, which appears as the immediately pre-verbal NP; Patient, which appears in the unmarked instance as the immediately post-verbal NP; Source; which is the NP immediately preceded by the post-verbal ablative particle le; Beneficiary, which is encoded by inalienable possession suffixation of the verb; Instrument, signaled by ablative particle le, but appearing discontinuously from it, the Patient-NP obligatorily intervening; and Goal encoded by the preposition te. "Additionally, directional verbs in chained sequence such as tavu (towards) and taro (away from) encode goal and source relationship respectively. relationships of Direction, Range, Location and comitative are encoded by prepositionally-coreferential topic deletion." Fundamental division of Nakanai cases in case relations: Nuclear roles filling positions of referential prominence: actor, beneficiary, patient Nuclear roles filling positions of non-referential prominence: goal, instrument, source Peripheral roles (necessarily referentially non-prominent: location, direction, range, comitative Actor The actor is typically the animate entity credited for the action in a sentence. In Nakanai, the action includes the source, the undergoer and the experiencer of, "a caused or spontaneous process, or mental state or event." The actor noun phrase will precede the verb in the language. Patient The patient is affected by the action or state identified by the verb in a sentence. They receive this external action or exhibit a state identified by a verb. In transitive clauses, the patient