Lavukaleve is one of the four

Central Solomons languages The Central Solomon languages are the four Papuan languages spoken in the state of the Solomon Islands. The four languages are, listed from northwest to southeast, * Bilua of Vella Lavella and Ghizo islands, * Touo (also known as ''Baniata)'' o ...

of the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

. It is thus assumed to be the descendant of the languages spoken in the Solomon Islands before the spread of the much more numerous Austronesian languages. The name Lavukaleve derives from the ethnonym '' Lavukal''. The Lavukals are the indigenous peoples of the

Russell Islands :''See also Russell Island (disambiguation).'' The Russell Islands are two small islands ( Pavuvu and Mbanika), as well as several islets, of volcanic origin, in the Central Province of Solomon Islands. They are located approximately northwest o ...

, part of the Solomon Islands Central Province. A comprehensive grammatical description of Lavukaleve was published by the linguist Angela Terrill in 2003. Lavukaleve is spoken in about eleven main villages. It used to be spoken predominantly on

Pavuvu Pavuvu is the largest of the Russell Islands in Central Province, Solomon Islands. It is located northwest of Guadalcanal. The area is . The largest village is Nukufero on the north coast. The island had served as a coconut plantation for nativ ...

, the largest island, but the speakers were forcefully relocated by the British to the smaller islands in order to make way for plantations.

References

External links

Anglican Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Eucharistic prayers and Catechism in Lavukaleve
from Project Canterbury, transcribed by Richard Mammana
Hai-Foiae Sevo Lavu Kaleve Ena
A Liturgy for Melanesia in Lavukaleve (1973) * Materials on Lavukaleve are included in the open access

Arthur Capell Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages. Early life Capell was born in Newtown, New South Wales ...

collections
AC1
an
AC2
held by

Paradisec The Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) is a cross-institutional project that supports work on endangered languages and cultures of the Pacific and the region around Australia. They digitise reel- ...

. Languages of the Solomon Islands Central Solomon languages {{papuan-lang-stub