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

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 /i ɪ ɛ ʉ ɵ ɞ ʊ ɔ a/,^[4] and 3 diphthongs /ɛ͡a ɔ͡ɞ ʊ͡ɵ/.^[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.