The nine South Vanuatu languages form a family of the
Southern Oceanic languages
The Southern Oceanic languages are a linkage (rather than family) of Oceanic languages spoken in Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It was proposed by John Lynch in 1995 and supported by later studies. It appears to be a linkage rather than a language ...
,
spoken in
Tafea Province
Tafea is the southernmost of the six provinces of Vanuatu. The name is an acronym for the five main islands that make up the province: Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwa.
History
Unlike the other provinces of Vanuatu, the territoria ...
(
Tanna,
Aneityum
Aneityum (also known as Anatom or Keamu) is the southernmost island of Vanuatu, in the province of Tafea.
Geography
Aneityum is the southernmost island of Vanuatu (not counting the Matthew and Hunter Islands, which are disputed with New Caledo ...
,
Futuna,
Erromango
Erromango is the fourth largest island in the Vanuatu archipelago. With a land area of , it is the largest island in Tafea Province, the southernmost of Vanuatu's six administrative regions.
Name
The endonym for Erromango in Erromangan is ''Ne ...
, and
Aniwa) of
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 ...
.
Languages
*Erromango family
**Southern:
Sie,
Sorung†
**Northern:
Ifo
Ifo or IFO may refer to:
Places
* Ifo, Ogun State, a local government area in Ogun State, Nigeria
* Ivano-Frankivsk International Airport in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, their IATA airport code
* Ifo Refugee Camp, UNHCR refugee camp in Kenya
* If ...
(Utaha)†,
Ura(See
Erromanga language#Linguistic situation for a description)
*Tanna family
**Southern:
Kwamera (South Tanna),
Southwest Tanna
**Northern:
Lenakel
Lenakel is the largest town on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. It has a population of 1,473.
It is located on the west coast of the island near the administrative capital of Isangel and serves as a major port of entry.
Language
It is the cente ...
(West Tanna),
Whitesands
Whitesands or White Sands is a village on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu.
Located on the southeast side of the island near Sulphur Bay, the area is a center of the indigenous Whitesands language and the John Frum cargo cult
Cargo cults ...
(Weasisi, East Tanna),
North Tanna
*Aneityum
**
Aneityum
Aneityum (also known as Anatom or Keamu) is the southernmost island of Vanuatu, in the province of Tafea.
Geography
Aneityum is the southernmost island of Vanuatu (not counting the Matthew and Hunter Islands, which are disputed with New Caledo ...
(Anejom̃)
François (2015)
François (
2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
:18–21) lists the following names and locations for the 9 South Vanuatu languages.
Proto-South Vanuatu
Proto-South Vanuatu was reconstructed by John Lynch in 2001.
The language, compared to Proto-Oceanic, went through a series of vowel reductions, leading to the creation of a new vowel written as *ə, such as in ''*na-waiR'' "fresh water" resulting in Proto-South Vanuatu ''*nə-wai'' of the same meaning.
However, it also preserves some, but not all final consonants. For example, ''*tanum'' "to plant, bury" is reflected in Proto-South Vanuatu as ''*(a)-tenum'' "to bury", but ''*taŋis'' "to cry" is instead reflected as ''*(a)-taŋi''.
Vowels
The vowels of Proto-South Vanuatu, according to Lynch, are:
Consonants
The consonants of Proto-South Vanuatu, according to Lynch, are:
:
References
* .
*Lynch, John. 2001. ''The linguistic history of southern Vanuatu''. (
Pacific Linguistics
Pacific Linguistics was established in 1963 as a non-profit publisher at the Australian National University, Canberra, publishing linguistic books (such as grammars and dictionaries) on the languages of Oceania, the Pacific, Australia, Indonesia ...
, 509.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
{{DEFAULTSORT:South Vanuatu Languages
Languages of Vanuatu
Southern Oceanic languages