The nine South Vanuatu languages form a family of the Southern Oceanic languages, spoken in Tafea Province (Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango, and Aniwa) of Vanuatu.

Languages

  • Erromango family
  • Southern: Sie, Sorung†
  • Northern: Ifo (Utaha)†, Ura<br />(more information here)
  • Tanna family
  • Southern: Kwamera (South Tanna), Southwest Tanna
  • Northern: Lenakel (West Tanna), Whitesands (Weasisi, East Tanna), North Tanna
  • Aneityum
  • Aneityum (Anejom̃)

François et al. (2015)

François et al. (2015:18–21) lists the following names and locations for the 9 South Vanuatu languages.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! No. !! Language !! Other names !! Speakers !! ISO 639-3 !! Region

|-

| 128 || Sie || Se, 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

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:

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center

|+ Vowels

|-

!

!Front

!Central

!Back

|-

! Close

|

|

|

|-

! Close-mid

|

|

|

|-

! Open

|

|

|

|}

Consonants

The consonants of Proto-South Vanuatu, according to Lynch, are:

: {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Consonants

! colspan="2" |

!Labiovelar

!Bilabial

!Alveolar

!Palatal

!Velar

!Uvular

|-

! rowspan="2" |Stop

!<small>voiced</small>

|*

|*

|*

|

|*

|

|-

!<small>voiceless</small>

|*

|*

|*

|

|*

|*

|-

! colspan="2" |Nasal

|*

|*

|*

|

|*

|

|-

! colspan="2" |Fricative

|*

|

|*

|*, *<br/>

|*

|

|-

! colspan="2" |Approximant

|*

|

|*, *

|*

|

|

|}

References

  • .
  • Lynch, John. 2001. The linguistic history of southern Vanuatu. (Pacific Linguistics, 509.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.