Mwerlap language

Mwerlap
Spoken in	Vanuatu
Region	Merelava, Gaua
Native speakers	c. 1100[1]  (date missing)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic Vanuatu Northern Vanuatu East Vanuatu Mwerlap
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mrm
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Mwerlap is an Oceanic language spoken in the south of the Banks Islands in Vanuatu. Its 900 speakers live mostly in Merelava and Merig, but a fair proportion have also settled the east coast of Gaua island.^[2] Besides, a number of Mwerlap speakers live in the two cities of Vanuatu, Port Vila and Luganville.

Names

Mwerlap is the name of Merelava island in the language, phonetically [ŋʷɞrlap]. The language is sometimes referred to as Merelava or Merlav in the literature.^[3]

Phonology

Mwerlap has 12 phonemic vowels. These include 9 monophthongs /i ɪ ɛ a ɞ ɵ ʉ ɔ ʊ/ and 3 diphthongs /ɛ͡a ɔ͡ɞ ʊ͡ɵ/.^[4]

References

1. ^ Linguistic map of north Vanuatu, showing range of Mwerlap.
2. ^ François (2005:444)
3. ^ Merelava reflects the name of the island in Mota, another language of the Banks Islands. Merlav represents an earlier attempt at transcribing the vernacular name of the island.
4. ^ François (2005:445, 460).

Bibliography

• François, Alexandre (2005), "Unraveling the history of vowels in seventeen north Vanuatu languages", Oceanic Linguistics 44 (2): 443–504, http://alex.francois.free.fr/data/AlexFrancois_VowelsNorthernVanuatu_OL44-2.pdf 

External links

• Bibliographic information on Merlav (Mwerlap)
• Na Buk Tatar, Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in the Merelava (Mwerlap) language