Vurës language

Vurës (Vureas, Vures) is an Oceanic language spoken in the southern area of Vanua Lava Island, in the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu, by about 2000 speakers.[1]:88

Vurës
Vureas
Native toVanuatu
RegionVanua Lava
Native speakers
2,000 (2012)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3msn (shared with Mwesen)
Glottologvure1239
ELPVurës[2]

Vurës shows enough similarities with the neighbouring language Mwesen that the two have sometimes been considered dialects of a single language, sometimes called Mosina (after the name of Mwesen village in the language Mota). However, studies have shown that Mwesen and Vurës have various dissimilarities, e.g. in their vowel systems,[3][4]:194 in their noun articles,[5] in their pronoun paradigms.[6]

Vurës was described in 2016 by linguist Catriona Malau.[7]

Phonology

Consonants

Labial-
velar
Labial Dental Alveolar Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless k͡pʷ k (ʔ)
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd̪
Nasal ŋ͡mʷ m n ŋ
Fricative β s ɣ
Trill/Tap r
Lateral l
Approximant w
  • /r/ is also heard as a tap [ɾ] in free variation.
  • A glottal stop /ʔ/ only rarely occurs in some words.
  • /β/ is heard as [p̚] before a voiceless stop.
  • /k͡pʷ/ is heard as [k͡p] when preceding another consonant.
  • Stop sounds /t̪ k/ are aspirated [t̪ʰ kʰ] before vowels.[7]:20

Vowels

Vurës has 9 phonemic vowels. These are all short monophthongs /i e ɛ a œ ø y ɔ o/:[3]:446[4]:194

Vurës vowels
Front Back
plain round
Close iy(ʊ)
Close-mid e ø o
Open-mid ɛœɔ
Open a
  • [ʊ] is only a marginal sound that occurs in a small amount of words, mostly borrowings.[7]:20
  • The vowel inventory also includes a diphthong [i​͡a].[3]:459460

References

Main reference

  • Malau, Catriona (2016). A grammar of Vurës, Vanuatu. Pacific Linguistics, 651. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-1-5015-0364-1.

Other references

Notes


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