Mwerlap language

Mwerlap
Merelava, Merlav
N̄wërlap
Pronunciation	[ŋʷɞrˈlap]
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Merelava, Gaua
Native speakers	ca. 1,100 (2012) [1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic North-Central Vanuatu North Vanuatu Torres-Banks Mwerlap
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mrm
Glottolog	merl1237
Mwerlap is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Mwerlap is an Oceanic language spoken in the south of the Banks Islands in Vanuatu.

Its 1,100 speakers live mostly in Merelava and Merig, but a fair proportion have also settled on the east coast of Gaua island. ^[2] Besides, a number of Mwerlap speakers live in the two cities of Vanuatu, Port Vila and Luganville.

The language has been studied by Alexandre François, and more recently by Agnès Henri. ^[3]

Name

The language is named after Mwerlap, the native name of Merelava island.

Phonology

Consonants

Mwerlap has 16 phonemic consonants.

Mwerlap consonants

		Labiovelar	Labial	Alveolar	Velar
Plosive	voiceless	kʷ ⟨q⟩	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	k ⟨k⟩
	prenasal		ᵐb ⟨b⟩	ⁿd ⟨d⟩
Nasal		ŋʷ ⟨n̄w⟩	m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	ŋ ⟨n̄⟩
Fricative			v ~ β ⟨v⟩	s ⟨s⟩	ɣ ⟨g⟩
Rhotic				r ⟨r⟩
Lateral				l ⟨l⟩
Approximant		w ⟨w⟩

/v/ is also heard as [β] when geminated in syllable-initial position.

/s/ may also be heard as alveolo-palatal [ɕ] when in geminated positions. ^[4]

Vowels

Mwerlap has 12 phonemic vowels. These include 9 monophthongs /iɪɛʉɵɞʊɔa/, ^[4] and 3 diphthongs /ɛ͡aɔ͡ɞʊ͡ɵ/. ^[5]

Mwerlap vowels

	Front	Central rounded	Back		Diphthongs
Close	i ⟨i⟩	ʉ ⟨u⟩	( u ) ⟨u⟩
Near-close	ɪ ⟨ē⟩	ɵ ⟨ö⟩	ʊ ⟨ō⟩		ʊ͡ɵ⟨ōö⟩
Open-mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩	ɞ ⟨ë⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩		ɔ͡ɞ⟨oë⟩
Open	a ⟨a⟩				ɛ͡a⟨ea⟩

/ʉ/ may also be heard as back [u] among speakers. ^[4]

Grammar

The system of personal pronouns in Mwerlap contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes three numbers (singular, dual, plural). ^[6]

Independent pronouns in Mwerlap ^[7]

		Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	inclusive	no ~ në/nɔ/~/nœ/	dōrō/ⁿdʊrʊ/	gean/ɣɛ͡an/
	exclusive		kamar/kamar/	kemem/kɛmɛm/
2nd		neak/nɛ͡ak/	kamrō/kamrʊ/	kemi/kɛmi/
3rd		(ki)sean/(ki)sɛ͡an/	karar/karar/	kear/kɛ͡ar/

Spatial reference in Mwerlap is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals. ^[8] That system is partly typical of Oceanic languages, and yet innovative. ^[9]

References

1. François 2012, p. 88.
2. François 2012, p. 97.
3. Henri 2023.
4. Henri (2023 , pp. 165–167); see online.
5. François 2005, pp. 445, 460.
6. François 2016, p. 51.
7. François 2016, p. 33-35.
8. Henri (2023 , pp. 205–212); see online.
9. François 2015, pp. 173–175.

Bibliography

• François, Alexandre (2005). "Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 44 (2): 443–504. doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0034. S2CID   131668754.
• —— (2011). "Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence" (PDF). Journal of Historical Linguistics. 1 (2): 175–246. doi:10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra. hdl: 1885/29283 .
• —— (2012). "The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF). International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2012 (214): 85–110. doi:10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022. S2CID   145208588.
• —— (2015). "The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages" (PDF). In Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell (eds.). The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. pp. 137–195. hdl:1885/14819. ISBN   978-1-922185-23-5.
• —— (2016). "The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu" (PDF). In Pozdniakov, Konstantin (ed.). Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles. Faits de Langues. Vol. 47. Bern: Peter Lang. pp. 25–60.
• Henri, Agnès (2023). "Éléments de description du mwerlap (langue du Nord-Vanuatu)". Lalies. 41: 157–221. doi:10.4000/1232y . Retrieved 2024-10-12.

External links

• Linguistic map of north Vanuatu, showing range of Mwerlap.
• Online material in Mwerlap (Merlav): audio recordings, documents, etc.
• Na Buk Tatar, Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in the Merelava (Mwerlap) language, digitized by Richard Mammana
• Audio recordings in the Mwerlap language, in open access, by A. François (source: Pangloss Collection , CNRS).
• Materials on Mwerlap are included in the open access Arthur Capell collections (AC1 and AC2) held by Paradisec.