South Vanuatu languages
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The nine South Vanuatu languages form a family of the Southern Oceanic languages,[1] spoken in Tafea Province (Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango, and Aniwa) of Vanuatu.
Languages
- Erromango family
- Southern: Sie, Sorung†
- Northern: Ifo (Utaha)†, Ura
(See Erromanga language#Linguistic situation for a description)
- Tanna family
- Southern: Kwamera (South Tanna), Southwest Tanna
- Northern: Lenakel (West Tanna), Whitesands (Weasisi, East Tanna), North Tanna
- Aneityum
- Aneityum (Anejom̃)
François (2015)
François (2015:18–21) lists the following names and locations for the 9 South Vanuatu languages.
| No. | Language | Other names | Speakers | ISO 639-3 | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 128 | Sie | Se, Sie, Erromanga | 1900 | erg | Erromango |
| 129 | Ura | 6 | uur | Erromango | |
| 130 | Utaha | 0 | iff | Erromango | |
| 131 | North Tanna | 5000 | tnn | Tanna | |
| 132 | Lenakel | Netvaar | 11500 | tnl | Tanna |
| 133 | Southwest Tanna | Nawal | 5000 | nwi | Tanna |
| 134 | Whitesands | Narak | 7500 | tnp | Tanna |
| 135 | Kwamera | Nafe, Nɨfe | 3500 | tnk | Tanna |
| 137 | Anejom̃ | Aneityum | 900 | aty | Aneityum |
Proto-South Vanuatu
Template:Infobox proto-language 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:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | |
| Close-mid | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". |
| Open | Script error: No such module "IPA". |
Consonants
The consonants of Proto-South Vanuatu, according to Lynch, are:
References
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- Lynch, John. 2001. The linguistic history of southern Vanuatu. (Pacific Linguistics, 509.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Template:Southern Oceanic languages Template:Austronesian languages