It has become commonplace to claim that all languages are equally complex. This is partially an overcorrection of racialist theories that held that "primitive" people spoke "primitive" languages, but also an implication of Chomskian linguistics, which postulates that all human languages are underlyingly the same. However, there is no objective reason to believe this is true, and much reason to believe it is not. Guy (1994)[1] illustrates the point by comparing two Santo languages he has worked on that are about as closely related as French and Spanish, Tolomako and Sakao, both spoken in the village of Port-Olry. Since these languages are very similar to each other, and equally distant from English, he holds that neither is inherently biased as being seen as more easy or difficult by an English speaker.
Sakao has more, and more difficult, vowel distinctions than Tolomako:
Tolomako vowels
|
front
unrounded |
back
rounded
|
| close
|
i |
u
|
| mid
|
e |
o
|
| open
|
a
|
|
Sakao vowels (partial)
|
front
unrounded |
front
rounded |
back
rounded
|
| close
|
i |
y |
u
|
| close mid
|
e |
ø |
o
|
| open mid
|
ɛ |
œ |
ɔ
|
| open
|
a |
|
ɒ
|
|
| In addition, Sakao has a close vowel /ɨ/ that is unspecified for being rounded or unrounded, front or back, and is always unstressed. It also has the two diphthongs /œɛ, ɒɔ/, whereas Tolomako has none.
|
|
In addition, it has more and more difficult consonant distinctions:
Tolomako consonants
|
labial |
alveolar |
velar
|
| nasal
|
m |
n |
|
| plosive
|
p |
t |
k
|
| affricate
|
|
ts |
|
| fricative
|
β |
|
ɣ
|
| trill
|
|
r |
|
| approximant
|
|
l |
|
|
Sakao consonants
|
labial |
alveolar |
palatal |
velar |
glottal
|
| nasal
|
m |
n |
|
ŋ |
|
| plosive
|
p |
t |
|
k |
|
| fricative
|
β |
ð |
|
ɣ |
h
|
| trill
|
|
r |
|
|
|
| voiceless trill
|
|
r̥ |
|
|
|
| approximant
|
w |
l |
j |
|
|
|
| In addition, Sakao consonants may be long or short: /œβe/ "drum", /œββe/ "bed"
|
|
Tolomako has a simple syllable structure, maximally consonant-vowel-vowel. It is not clear if Sakao even has syllables; that is, whether trying to divide Sakao words into meaningful syllables is even possible.
Tolomako syllable structure
| V, CV, VV, CVV
|
|
Sakao syllable structure
| V (a vowel or diphthong) surrounded by any number of consonants: V /i/ "thou", CCVCCCC (?) /mhɛrtpr/ "having sung and stopped singing thou kept silent" [m- 2nd pers., hɛrt "to sing", -p perfective, -r continuous].
|
|
With deixis, Tolomako has three degrees (here/this, there/that, yonder/yon), whereas Sakao has seven.
With inalienably possessed nouns, Tolomako inflections are consistently regular, whereas Sakao is full of irregular nouns:
| Tolomako |
Sakao |
English
|
| na tsiɣo-ku |
œsɨŋœ-ɣ |
"my mouth"
|
| na tsiɣo-mu |
œsɨŋœ-m |
"thy mouth"
|
| na tsiɣo-na |
ɔsɨŋɔ-n |
"his/her/its mouth"
|
| na tsiɣo-... |
œsœŋ-... |
"...'s mouth"
|
|
| Tolomako |
Sakao |
English
|
| na βulu-ku |
uly-ɣ |
"my hair"
|
| na βulu-mu |
uly-m |
"thy hair"
|
| na βulu-na |
ulœ-n |
"his/her/its hair"
|
| na βulu-... |
nøl-... |
"...'s hair"
|
|
Here Tolomako "mouth" is invariably tsiɣo- and "hair" invariably βulu-, whereas Sakao "mouth" is variably œsɨŋœ-, ɔsɨŋɔ-, œsœŋ- and "hair" variably uly-, ulœ-, nøl-.
Tolomako has a preposition to distinguish the object of a verb from an instrument; indeed, a single preposition, ne, is used for all relationships of space and time. Sakao, on the other hand, treats both as objects of the verb, with a transitive suffix -ɨn that shows the verb has two objects, but letting context disambiguate which is which:
Tolomako
| mo |
losi |
na |
poe |
ne |
na |
matsa
|
| S/he |
hits |
ART |
pig |
PREP |
ART |
club
|
| "He hits (kills) the pig with a club"
|
|
Sakao
| mɨ-jil-ɨn |
a-ra |
a-mas
|
| S/he-hits-TRANS |
ART-pig |
ART-club
|
| "He hits (kills) the pig with a club"
|
|
| The Sakao could also be mɨjilɨn amas ara
|
|
The Sakao strategy involves polysynthetic syntax, as opposed to the isolating syntax of Tolomako:
Sakao polysynthesis
| Mɔssɔnɛshɔβrɨn aða ɛðɛ (or: ɛðɛ aða)
|
| mɔ-sɔn-nɛs-hɔβ-r-ɨn |
a-ða |
ɛ-ðɛ
|
| s/he-shoots-fish-follows-CONT-TRANS |
ART-bow |
ART-sea
|
| "He kept on walking along the shore shooting fish with a bow."
|
Here aða "the bow" is the instrumental of sɔn "to shoot", and ɛðɛ "the sea" is the direct object of hoβ "to follow", which since they are combined into a single verb, are marked as ditransitive with the suffix -ɨn. Because sɔn "to shoot" has the incorporated object nɛs "fish", the first consonant geminates for ssɔn; ssɔn-nɛs, being part of one word, then reduces to ssɔnɛs. And indeed, the previous example of killing a pig could be put more succinctly, but grammatically more complexly, in Sakao by incorporating the object 'pig' into the verb:
| mɨjilrapɨn amas
|
| mɨ-jil-ra-p-ɨn |
a-mas
|
| s/he-hit-pig-PFV-TRANS |
ART-club
|
As Guy puts it, "Which of the two languages spoken in Port-Olry do you think the Catholic missionaries learnt and used? Could that possibly be because it was easier than the other?"
As to the common belief that creole languages are necessarily simpler than non-creoles, Guy believes this to also be untrue; after a comparison with Antillean Creole, he writes, "I assure you that it is far, far more complex than Tolomako!", despite being based on his native language, French.
