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 **

(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