Tamambo, or Malo, is an Oceanic language spoken by 4,000 people on Malo and nearby islands in Vanuatu. Phonology Vowels become respectively when unstressed and before another vowel. may also become for some speakers. Consonants The prenasalized postalveolar stop is often affricated and voiceless, i.e. . Younger speakers often realize as initially and medially, while is often replaced by . is usually realized as initially, but some speakers use . Medially, it may be pronounced as any of . Writing system Few speakers of Tamambo are literate, and there is no standard orthography. Spelling conventions used include: Pronouns and person markers In Tamambo, personal pronouns distinguish between first, second, and third person. There is an inclusive and exclusive marking on the first-person plural and gender is not marked. There are four classes of pronouns, which is not uncommon in other Austronesian languages: Independent pronouns Subject pronouns Object pronouns Possessive pronouns. Independent pronouns Independent pronouns behave grammatically similarly to other NPs in that they can occur in the same slot as a subject NP, functioning as the head of a NP. However, in regular discourse, they are not used a great deal due to the obligatory nature of cross-referencing subject pronouns. Use of independent pronouns is often seen as unnecessary and unusual except in the following situations: Indicate person and number of conjoint NP Introduce new referent Reintroduce referent Emphasise participation of known referent Indicating person and number of conjoint NP In the instance where two NPs are joined as a single subject, the independent pronoun reflects the number of the conjoint NP: and Thus, merging the two above clauses into one, the independent pronoun must change to reflect total number of subjects: Introducing a new referent When a new referent is introduced into the discourse, the independent pronoun is used. In this case, kamam: Reintroduction of referent In this example, the IP hinda in the second sentence is used to refer back to tahasi in the first sentence. Emphasis on participation of known subject According to Jauncey, this is the most common use of the IP. Comparing the two examples, the latter placing the emphasis on the subject: and Subject pronouns Subject pronouns are an obligatory component of a verbal phrase, indicating the person and number of the NP. They can either co-occur with the NP or independent in the subject slot, or exist without if the subject has been