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Mota Lava
Mota Lava or Motalava is an island of the Banks group, in the north of Vanuatu. It forms a single coral system with the small island of Ra. The 2009 census figures give a population of 1,640 inhabitants (Mota Lava + Ra), which amounts to a population density of 67 people per km2. Geography Geography and geology With an area of 24 km2 (9.3 sq mi), Mota Lava is the fourth largest island in the Banks Islands, after Gaua, Vanua Lava and Ureparapara. It is the highest () of the eastern chain of islands, as well as the largest. Ra, a small island of , is located off the southern coast of Mota Lava. It is attached to it by high corals that one can wade through at low tide. The climate on Mota Lava is humid tropical. The average annual rainfall exceeds 4000 mm. The island is subject to frequent earthquakes and cyclones. The island is served by Mota Lava Airport. Geology Mota Lava is composed of at least five basaltic stratovolcanoes. Two of the cones, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ra Island
Rah or Ra is a small coral islet of , located in the Banks group of northern Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o .... The same name also refers to the single village which is situated within this islet. There is a massive rock tower on the island, which is a popular hiking spot for locals as well as tourists. It is named ''Tavalya'' in Mwotlap (meaning "the other side of Ra"), and sometimes labelled 'the Rock of Rah' in English. The islet of Rah is situated off the larger island of Mota Lava. Access to Rah is done in two ways: at low tide, by wading across the narrow strait from the mainland;and at high tide, by outrigger canoe. Name The islet is known in English, and Bislama, as ''Rah'' (where the letter ''h'' does not represent anything in the actual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mwotlap
Mwotlap (pronounced ; formerly known as ''Motlav'') is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,100 people in Vanuatu. The majority of speakers are found on the island of Motalava in the Banks Islands, with smaller communities in the islands of Ra (or ''Aya'') and Vanua Lava, as well as migrant groups in the two main cities of the country, Santo and Port Vila. Mwotlap was first described in any detail in 2001, by the linguist Alexandre François. Volow, which used to be spoken on the same island, may be considered a dialect or a separate language. The language Name The Mwotlap language is named after the island of Motalava, which is locally known as ''Mwotlap''. Geographic distribution Mwotlap is spoken by about 2,100 people in the Banks Islands, in the North of Vanuatu. Among them, 1,640 live on the island of Mota Lava and its neighbor island, Ra. It is also spoken by a few hundred people living elsewhere in Vanuatu: * Vanua Lava, particularly in the northeast * S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Islands Of Vanuatu
This is a list of islands of Vanuatu by provinces of Vanuatu, province, largely from north to south, subdivided by archipelago when appropriate. Vanuatu is usually said to contain 83 islands. Islands *Torba Province **Torres Islands ***Hiw (island), Hiw ***Metoma (uninhabited, but formerly inhabited) ***Tegua ***Ngwel (uninhabited) ***Linua ***Lo (island), Lo ***Toga (island), Toga **Banks Islands ***Vet Tagde ***Ureparapara ***Rowa Islands (Reef Islands) ****Enwut (uninhabited) ****Lomeur ***Vanua Lava ****Kwakea ****Leneu ****Nawila ****Ravenga ***Gaua (Santa Maria Island) ***Mota (island), Mota ***Mota Lava (Saddle) ****Ra Island ***Merig ***Mere Lava *Sanma Province **Espiritu Santo ***Dany Island ***Araki (island) ***Elephant Island (Vanuatu), Elephant Island ***Thion (Vanuatu), Dolphin Island ***Sakao (Sanma, Vanuatu), Sakao ***Malohu ***Malparavu ***Maltinerava ***Malvapevu ***Malwepe ***Oyster Island (Vanuatu), Oyster Island ***Tangoa Island, Tangoa ***Bokissa ***Lataro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandre François
Alexandre François is a French linguist specialising in the description and study of the indigenous languages of Melanesia. He belongs t''Lattice'' a research centre of the CNRS and dedicated to linguistics. Research Language description and documentation François has done linguistic fieldwork in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. In 2002, he published a grammatical description of Araki, a language spoken by a handful of speakers on an islet south of Espiritu Santo (Vanuatu). Most of his research focuses on the northern islands of Vanuatu, known as the Torres and Banks Islands, an area where sixteen out of seventeen languages are still spoken: Hiw, Lo-Toga, Lehali, Löyöp, Mwotlap, Volow (extinct), Lemerig, Vera'a, Vurës, Mwesen, Mota, Nume, Dorig, Koro, Olrat, Lakon, Mwerlap - all descended from the Proto-Torres–Banks language, which was also reconstructed by him. After describing Mwotlap, the language with most speakers in that area, he has publish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Language
Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, global language with 483 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain, and about 558 million speakers total, including second-language speakers. Spanish is the official language of List of countries where Spanish is an official language, 20 countries, as well as one of the Official languages of the United Nations, six official languages of the United Nations. Spanish is the world's list of languages by number of native speakers, second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world's list of languages by total number of speakers, fourth-most spoken language overall after English language, English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani language, Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pedro Fernández De Quirós
Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning "son of Peter" (compared with the English surname Peterson) is Pérez in Spanish, Peres in Galician and Portuguese, Pires also in Portuguese, and Peiris in coastal area of Sri Lanka (where it originated from the Portuguese version), with all ultimately meaning "son of Pero". The name Pedro is derived via the Latin word "petra", from the Greek word "η πέτρα" meaning "stone, rock". The name Peter itself is a translation of the Aramaic ''Kephas'' or '' Cephas'' meaning "stone". An alternative archaic variant is Pero. Notable people with the name Pedro include: Monarchs, mononymously *Pedro I of Portugal *Pedro II of Portugal *Pedro III of Portugal *Pedro IV of Portugal, also Pedro I of Brazil *Pedro V of Portugal *Pedro II ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obsidian
Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. It is commonly found within the margins of rhyolite, rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows. These flows have a high content of silicon dioxide, silica, giving them a high viscosity. The high viscosity inhibits the atomic diffusion, diffusion of atoms through the lava, which inhibits the first step (nucleation) in the formation of mineral crystals. Together with rapid cooling, this results in a natural glass forming from the lava. Obsidian is hard, Brittleness, brittle, and amorphous; it therefore Fracture (mineralogy)#Conchoidal fracture, fractures with sharp edges. In the past, it was used to manufacture cutting and piercing tools, and it has been used experimentally as s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lapita Culture
The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian peoples, Austronesian people and their distinct material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. The Lapita people are believed to have originated from the northern Philippines, either directly, via the Mariana Islands, or both. They were notable for their distinctive geometric designs on dentate-stamped pottery, which closely resemble the pottery recovered from the Nagsabaran archaeological site in northern Luzon. The Lapita intermarried with the Indigenous people of New Guinea, Papuan populations to various degrees, and are the direct ancestors of the Austronesian peoples of Polynesia, eastern Micronesia, and Island Melanesia. Etymology The term "Lapita" was coined by archaeologists after mishearing a word in the local Haveke language, ''xapeta'a'', which means "to dig a hole" or "the place where one digs", during the 1952 excavation in New Caledonia. The Lapita a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austronesian Peoples
The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Southeast Asia, parts of mainland Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austronesian languages. They also include indigenous ethnic minorities in Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Hainan, the Comoros, and the Torres Strait Islands. The nations and territories predominantly populated by Austronesian-speaking peoples are sometimes known collectively as Austronesia. The group originated from a prehistoric seaborne migration, known as the Austronesian expansion, from Taiwan, circa 3000 to 1500 BCE. Austronesians reached the Batanes Islands in the northernmost Philippines by around 2200 BCE. They used sails some time before 2000 BCE. In conjunction with their use of other maritime technologies (notably catamarans, outrigger boats, lashed-lug boats, and the crab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
12th Century BC
The 12th century BC is the period from 1200 to 1101 BC. The Late Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean is often considered to begin in this century. Events * 1200 BC: the first civilization in Central and North America develops in about 1200 BC in the coastal regions of the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico. Known as the Olmec civilization, its early site is at San Lorenzo. * 1200 BC: the Phoenicians found the port of Lisbon, Portugal * 1197 BC: the beginning of the first period ( 1197 BC– 982 BC) by Shao Yong's concept of the I Ching and history. * 1194 BC: the beginning of the legendary Trojan War. * 1192 BC: Wu Ding, King of the Shang dynasty, dies. * 1191 BC: Menestheus, legendary King of Athens, dies during the Trojan War after a reign of 23 years and is succeeded by his nephew Demophon, a son of Theseus. Other accounts place his death a decade later and shortly after the Trojan War (see 1180s BC). * 1186 BC: end of the N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apocope
In phonology, apocope () is the omission (elision) or loss of a sound or sounds at the end of a word. While it most commonly refers to the loss of a final vowel, it can also describe the deletion of final consonants or even entire syllables. For instance, in many dialects the 't' in words like 'hot' remains unpronounced in contexts like 'hot potato'. Even longer words, such as 'Worcestershire', can undergo apocope, resulting in 'Worcester'. The resulting word form after apocope has occurred is called an . Etymology ''Apocope'' comes from the Greek () from () "cutting off", from () "away from" and () "to cut". Historical sound change In historical linguistics, ''apocope'' is often the loss of an unstressed vowel. Loss of an unstressed vowel or vowel and nasal * Latin → Portuguese (''sea'') * Vulgar Latin → Spanish (''bread'') * Vulgar Latin → French (''wolf'') * Proto-Germanic → Old, Middle, and Modern English ''land'' * Old English → Modern English ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Torres–Banks Language
Proto-Torres-Banks (abbr. PTB) is the reconstructed ancestor of the seventeen languages of the Torres and Banks Islands of Vanuatu. Like all indigenous languages of Vanuatu, it belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian languages. More specifically, it is the shared ancestor of the following modern languages (ranked geographically, from NW to SE): Hiw, Lo-Toga, Lehali, Löyöp, Volow, Mwotlap, Lemerig, Vera'a, Vurës, Mwesen, Mota, Nume, Dorig, Koro, Olrat, Lakon, and Mwerlap. Reconstruction Proto-Torres-Banks, as reconstructed with the comparative method from the attested daughter languages, evidently represented an early, mutually intelligible chain of Oceanic dialects in the northern part of Vanuatu starting from 1000 BCE after Lapita settlement of the archipelago, as evidenced by the pattern of loss and retention of the Proto-Oceanic phoneme ''*R'', which merged with ''*r'' in the early history of the North-Central Vanuatu dialect chain. It therefore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
