Northeast Malakula language

Northeast Malakula, or Uripiv-Wala-Rano-Atchin, is a dialect chain spoken on the islands of Uripiv, Wala, Rano, and Atchin and on the mainland opposite to these islands. Uripiv-Wala-Rano-Atchin is spoken today by about 9,000 people. Literacy rate of its speakers in their own language is 10–30%.

For Wala of the Solomon Islands, see Langalanga language.
Northeast Malakula
Uripiv-Wala-Rano-Atchin
Native toVanuatu
RegionMalakula
Native speakers
9,000 (2001)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3upv
Glottologurip1239
Northeast Malakula is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Uripiv-Wala-Rano-Atchin forms a dialect chain. The Uripiv dialect is the most southerly of these and has 85% of its words in common with Atchin, the most northerly dialect. Uripiv is spoken on the north-east coast of Malakula.

The Uripiv dialect is one of the few documented languages that use the rare bilabial trill, a feature that is not found in the Atchin dialect.

Phonology

Consonants
Uripiv consonants[2]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
plain lab.
Plosive/
Affricate		 voiceless p pʷ t tʃ k
prenasal ᵐb ᵐbʷ ⁿd ᵑɡ
Fricative β s
Nasal m mʷ n ŋ
Tap ɾ
Trill voiced r
prenasal ᵐʙ (ⁿᵈr)
Lateral l
Approximant w j
  • The sound /ⁿᵈr/ is considered rare, and its phonemic status is unclear.[2]
Atchin consonants[3]
Labial Alveolar Velar
plain lab.
Plosive voiceless p pʷ t k
prenasal ᵐb ᵐbʷ
Affricate ts
Fricative β s
Nasal m mʷ n ŋ
Trill r
Lateral l
Approximant w
  • Some speakers may pronounce sounds /s, ts/ as [ʃ, tʃ] in free variation.[3]

Vowels
Uripiv vowels[2]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e ø o
Open a
Atchin vowels[3]
Front Central Back
Close i ʉ u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid œ
Open a
  • Sounds /e, o, œ/ are heard as [ɛ, ɔ, ə] in unstressed closed-syllable position.[3]

References
  1. Northeast Malakula at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Lynch, John (2020). The Phonological History of Uripiv, an Eastern Malakula Language. Language & Linguistics in Melanesia 38. pp. 10–37.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. Duhamel, Marie (2010). The Noun Phrase of Atchin: A language of Malakula Vanuatu (PDF). University of Auckland.

Further reading
  • Duhamel, Marie (2015) Ethnolinguistic vitality of the language of Atchin, central Vanuatu: A survey of the language's status, institutional support and demography. Fourth International Workshop on the Sociolinguistics of Language Endangerment. Payap University.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.