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.[2]

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

Vurës was described by linguist Catriona Malau, in the form of a grammar[2] and a dictionary.[3]

Name

The name Vurës [βyrœs] is named after the bay located in southwestern Vanua Lava in the language itself. In Mota, the bay is referred to as Vureas [βureas]. These come from a reconstructed Proto-Torres-Banks form *βureas(i,u).

Dialectology

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). And indeed, a 2018 glottometric study has calculated that Vurës and Mwesen share 85% of their historical innovations, revealing a long history of shared development between these two lects.[4]

However, studies have shown that Mwesen and Vurës have various dissimilarities, e.g. in their vowel systems,[5] in their noun articles,[6] in their pronoun paradigms[7][8] — enough to be considered clearly distinct.

Phonology

Consonants
Labial-
velar		 Labial Dental Alveolar Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless k͡pʷ ⟨q⟩ t̪ ⟨t⟩ k ⟨k⟩ (ʔ)
prenasal ᵐb ⟨b⟩ ⁿd̪ ⟨d⟩
Nasal ŋ͡mʷ ⟨m̄⟩ m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩ ŋ ⟨n̄⟩
Fricative β ⟨v⟩ s ⟨s⟩ ɣ ⟨g⟩
Liquid rhotic r ⟨r⟩
lateral l ⟨l⟩
Semivowel w ⟨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.[9]

Vowels

Vurës has 9 phonemic vowels. These are all short monophthongs /i e ɛ a œ ø y ɔ o/:[10][11]

Vurës vowels
Front Back
plain round
Close i ⟨i⟩y ⟨u⟩(ʊ) ⟨u⟩
Close-mid e ⟨ē⟩ ø ⟨ö⟩ o ⟨ō⟩
Open-mid ɛ ⟨e⟩œ ⟨ë⟩ɔ ⟨o⟩
Open a ⟨a⟩
  • [ʊ] is only a marginal sound that occurs in a small amount of words, mostly borrowings.[9]
  • The vowel inventory also includes a diphthong [i​͡a] ⟨ia⟩.[12]

References

Citations
  1. François 2012, p. 88.
  2. Malau 2016.
  3. Malau 2021.
  4. Kalyan & François 2018.
  5. François 2005.
  6. François 2007.
  7. François 2009.
  8. François 2016.
  9. Malau 2016, p. 20.
  10. François 2005, p. 446.
  11. François 2011, p. 194.
  12. François 2005, p. 459-460.

Bibliography


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