Lakon language

Lakon is an Oceanic language, spoken on the west coast of Gaua island in Vanuatu.

Names

The language name Lakon refers originally to the area where it is spoken ‒ namely Lakona Bay, corresponding to the west coast of Gaua. The alternative name Lakona is from the Mota language. These names are derived from a Proto-Torres-Banks form *laᵑgona, of unknown meaning.

Lakon had four dialects, named Qatareu (Qätärew ), Vure (Vurē ), Toglatareu, and Togla.

Phonology

Consonants

Lakon has 16 phonemic consonants.

Lakon consonants

	Labiovelar	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Dorsal	Glottal
Plosive	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Nasal	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Fricative		Template:IPA link ~ Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Rhotic			Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Lateral			Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Approximant	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr

The glottal stop only occurs before vowels in syllable-initial position. While non-phonemic, it is sometimes noted in the orthography, using a Template:Angbr mark.

Vowels

Lakon has 16 phonemic vowels. These include 8 short /i ɪ ɛ æ a ɔ ʊ u/ and 8 long vowels /iː ɪː ɛː æː aː ɔː ʊː uː/.

Lakon vowels

	Front	Back
Near-close	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr ∙ Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr ∙ Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Close-mid	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr ∙ Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr ∙ Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Open-mid	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr ∙ Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr ∙ Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Near-open	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr ∙ Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Open	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr ∙ Template:IPA link Template:Angbr

Historically, the phonemicisation of vowel length originates in the compensatory lengthening of short vowels when the alveolar trill was lost syllable-finally. This is considered to be a very recent change, perhaps within the last century, as Codrington still indicates the trill syllable-finally. However, the 1897 Book of Common Prayer in Lakon shows loss of the trill, as evidenced by tataa "prayer" (spelled as tata) for Mota tataro.

Grammar

The system of personal pronouns in Lakon contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, plural).

Spatial reference in Lakon is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is typical of Oceanic languages.

Bibliography

• .

External links

• Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Lakon from Project Canterbury
• A book of traditional stories, monolingual in Lakon language (site of linguist A. François)
• Detailed list and map of the Banks and Torres languages, showing range of Lakon.
• Audio recordings in the Lakon language, in open access, by A. François (source: Pangloss Collection).
• Paradisec has collections with Lakon language materials including Arthur Capell's fieldnotes (AC2) and Digitised microfilm images from Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (PAMBU).