Aplow, or ''Valuwa'', is a village located on the eastern part of
Motalava island, in the
Banks Islands
The Banks Islands (in Bislama ''Bankis'') are a group of islands in northern Vanuatu. Together with the Torres Islands to their northwest, they make up the northernmost province of Torba. The island group lies about north of Maewo, and incl ...
of
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
. Located close to it is the
island's airport, ''Valua airport''.
Aplow also designates the whole district around this village, corresponding to the eastern side of the island; in this sense, Aplow contrasts with ''Mwotlap'', which strictly speaking designates the western half of Motalava island.
The area of Aplow used to be home of a communalect (language or dialect) known as
Volow. Volow become extinct in the 1980s, as its speakers
adopted
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
the dominant language
Mwotlap from the western side.
Name
The name ''Aplow'' is the name of the village in
Mwotlap, which is the dominant language spoken today on the island. The same village was originally known as ''Volow'' in the now extinct
language of the same name.
Finally, the village, as well as the district around it, are sometimes designated as ''Valuwa'' (or wrongly as ''Valua''). this reflects the form of the word in
Mota, the language of the
neighbouring island which missionaries once used as the contact language in the whole region.
All these forms descend from a reconstructed *''Valuwa'' in the
Proto-Torres-Banks language, e.g. *''Vaˈluwa'' > . The Mwotlap form incorporates a locative prefix: *''ˌa-Vaˈluwa'' > * > .
Notes
References
*
Populated places in Vanuatu
Torba Province
{{Vanuatu-geo-stub