structure in Wuvulu is (C)V. This means that the vowel is the nucleus of the syllable and can be either a standard vowel, long vowel or a diphthong. The consonant, on the other hand, is optional. All vowels hold one mora of weight; however, long vowels and diphthongs hold two moras of weight. Stress If a syllable in Wuvulu contains a long vowel or diphthong, it is considered "heavy". Therefore, long vowels and diphthongs always carry stress. Similarly, stressed is considered to be linked to vowel length. If a syllable ends with a vowel that is short in length, then they have penultimate stress. Thus, 'sink' has penultimate stress because its final vowel is short in length. If a syllable ends with a vowel that is long in length or a diphthong, then it has ultimate stress; 'my village' has ultimate stress because its final vowel is long in length. Morphosyntax Proto-Oceanic is the ancestor of Wuvulu; though the grammatical structure of Wuvulu is similar, there are also differences. Proto-Oceanic noun-phrase sentence structure is as follows: art + (number/quantifier)+ noun + modifier + demonstrative. In Wuvulu, however, the noun-phrase sentence structure is: (art/demonstrative) + (number/quantifier) + modifiers + noun + modifier Noun phrases Similar to Proto–Oceanic, nouns are categorized as personal, local and common. Personal nouns are nouns related to the speaker, such as kin terms or the personal names of people. Local nouns are names of places. All other nouns are common nouns like 'tree'. This category also includes words like 'under' (preposition). Compounds, reduplication and onomatopoeia are the three ways to construct nouns. Compounds are when two words combine together to form a new word. For example (spotted triggerfish) is formed from ('table') and ('sea bird'). ('driftwood') and ('bicycle') are examples of reduplication. Onomatopoeic words include or ('knock'), which mimics the sound of knocking on a door. Verb phrases Wuvulu has a single word that contains 20 morphemes (morphemes are the smallest unit of meaning in a language), which is the most complicated single verb among the 500 Oceanic languages. Verbs can be attached by subject and object clitics and can have added mood, aspect, completion, etc. Example: 'to throw' 'throw it!' 'Throw the stone' bound with object marker The verb root takes the transitive morpheme (-ca) When an intransitive word changes to a transitive word, the causative maker must be added to the word. Example: to 'run'