Malua Bay (also called Middle Nambas) is an

Oceanic language The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...

spoken in northwest

Malekula Malakula, also spelled Malekula, is the second-largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, formerly the New Hebrides, in Melanesia, a region of the Pacific Ocean. Location Malakula is separated from the islands of Espiritu Santo and Malo by the B ...

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 ...

. It has two main dialects: one spoken in Malua Bay and the other spoken in Espiegles Bay.

Classification

Malua, as an Oceanic language, belongs to the

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: *The Austronesian languages *The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Sout ...

language family. Furthermore, it belongs to the Malekula grouping within the Central Vanuatu subgroup, along with

Nese Nese may refer to: * Nese, Italy, a village in northern Italy * Nese, Norway, a village in south-western Norway * Nese language, an Oceanic language or dialect spoken in Vanuatu * Tony Nese, American professional wrestler See also * Neşe, ...

, Botovro, Vovo, Vao, and others.

Community

Malua is mainly spoken in Malua and Espiegles Bay, with a small amount of speakers in

Port Vila Port Vila ( ; ), or simply Vila (), is the capital of Vanuatu and its largest city. It is on the island of Efate, in Shefa Province. The population was 49,034 as of the 2020 census. In 2020, the population of Port Vila formed 16.3% of the ...

. The majority of speakers are bilingual in

Bislama Bislama ( ; ; also known by its earlier French name, ) is an English-based creole language. It is the national language of Vanuatu, and one of the three official languages of the country, the other ones being English and French. Bislama is the ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

, or

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Grammar

Malua contains a distinction between alienable and

inalienable possession In linguistics, inalienable possession ( abbreviated ) is a type of possession in which a noun is obligatorily possessed by its possessor. Nouns or nominal affixes in an inalienable possession relationship cannot exist independently or be "al ...

. Verbal predicates are marked for either

realis A realis mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Most ...

irrealis In linguistics, irrealis moods (abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods. They ar ...

mood. It also exhibits nominative-accusative alignment.

External links

* Paradisec ha
a number of collections that include Malua Bay language materials

References

Malekula languages Languages of Vanuatu {{SOceanic-lang-stub