Lemerig language

Last updated
Lemerig
Pak, Päk, Sasar
Pronunciation [lɪmɪˈriɣ]
Native to Vanuatu
Region Vanua Lava
Native speakers
2 (2010) [1]
DialectsAlo-Teqel, Pak, Sasar
Language codes
ISO 639-3 lrz
Glottolog leme1238
ELP Lemerig
Lang Status 20-CR.svg
Lemerig is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
One of the two remaining speakers of Lemerig, recorded in Vanuatu.

Lemerig is an Oceanic language spoken on Vanua Lava, in Vanuatu.

Contents

The language is no longer actively spoken. The 2 remaining speakers live on the northern coast of the island. [2] Lemerig has receded in favour of its neighbours Mwotlap and Vera'a. [1]

Name

The name Lemerig refers to a now abandoned village in northern Vanua Lava; it is spelled Lēmērig/lɪmɪˈriɣ/ in the language of the same name. It reflects an earlier Proto-Torres-Banks form *lemeriɣi, where the *riɣi component likely means "small".

Dialects

Lemerig has sometimes been referred to using the names of its local varieties: Päk; [3] Sasar; Alo-Teqel.

Judging from wordlists published by missionary and linguist Robert Codrington, [4] these three varieties were very close to each other. The little differences there were went extinct during the 20th century.

Phonology

Lemerig has 11 phonemic vowels. These are all short monophthongs /iɪɛæaœøɒ̝ɔʊu/. [5] [6]

Lemerig vowels
Front Back
plainround
Close i i  u u
Near-close ɪ ē ø ö ʊ ō
Open-mid ɛ e œ ë ɔ o
Near-open æ ä  ɒ̝ ā
Open a a

Grammar

The system of personal pronouns in Lemerig contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, and plural). [7]

Spatial reference in Lemerig is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is in part typical of Oceanic languages, in part innovative. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torba Province</span> Province of Vanuatu

Torba is the northernmost and least populous province of Vanuatu. It consists of the Banks Islands and the Torres Islands.

Mwotlap is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,100 people in Vanuatu. The majority of speakers are found on the island of Motalava in the Banks Islands, with smaller communities in the islands of Ra and Vanua Lava, as well as migrant groups in the two main cities of the country, Santo and Port Vila.

Qat is the principal god in the oral mythology of the Banks Islands, a small archipelago of northern Vanuatu, Melanesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ureparapara</span> Island of Vanuatu

Ureparapara is the third largest island in the Banks group of northern Vanuatu, after Gaua and Vanua Lava.

Mota is an Oceanic language spoken by about 750 people on Mota island, in the Banks Islands of Vanuatu. It is the most conservative Torres–Banks language, and the only one to keep its inherited five-vowel system intact while also preserving most final vowels.

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

Koro is an Oceanic language spoken on Gaua island in Vanuatu. Its 280 speakers live in the village of Koro, on the south coast of Gaua.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lo-Toga language</span> Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu

Lo-Toga is an Oceanic language spoken by about 580 people on the islands of Lo and Toga, in the Torres group of northern Vanuatu. The language has sometimes been called Loh [sic] or Toga, after either of its two dialects.

Mwerlap is an Oceanic language spoken in the south of the Banks Islands in Vanuatu.

Dorig(formerly called Wetamut) is a threatened Oceanic language spoken on Gaua island in Vanuatu.

Nume is an Oceanic language spoken on Gaua island in Vanuatu. Its 700 speakers live on the northeast coast of Gaua.

Olrat was an Oceanic language of Gaua island, in northern Vanuatu. It became extinct in 2009, with the death of its last speaker Maten Womal.

Mwesen is an Oceanic language spoken in the southeastern area of Vanua Lava Island, in the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu, by about 10 speakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vurës language</span> Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu

Vurës is an Oceanic language spoken in the southern area of Vanua Lava Island, in the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu, by about 2000 speakers.

Veraʼa, also known as Vatrata, is an Oceanic language spoken on the western coast of Vanua Lava Island, in the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu.

Löyöp is an Oceanic language spoken by about 240 people, on the east coast of Ureparapara Island in the Banks Islands of Vanuatu. It is distinct from Lehali, the language spoken on the west coast of the same island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lehali language</span> Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu

Lehali is an Oceanic language spoken by about 200 people, on the west coast of Ureparapara Island in Vanuatu. It is distinct from Löyöp, the language spoken on the east coast of the same island.

Volow is an Oceanic language variety that used to be spoken in the area of Aplow, in the eastern part of the island of Motalava, Vanuatu.

The Torres–Banks languages form a linkage of Southern Oceanic languages spoken in the Torres Islands and Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu.

Proto-Torres-Banks is the reconstructed ancestor of the seventeen languages of the Torres and Banks Islands of Vanuatu. Like all indigenous languages of Vanuatu, it belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian languages.

References

  1. 1 2 François 2012, p. 87.
  2. List of Banks islands languages.
  3. Päk [pæk] is a village on the north coast of Vanua Lava island, today often referred to using its Mwotlap name Abek [aᵐbɛk] . Due to its vowel [æ] (potentially ambiguous to Western ears), the original name in Lemerig was spelled Pak in Codrington 1885 (pp.39 sqq), but Pek in Codrington 1891 (p.81).
  4. See Codrington 1885, pp.39-52 sqq..
  5. François 2011, p. 194.
  6. See François 2021.
  7. François 2016.
  8. François 2015, pp. 169–170.

Bibliography