Languages of Efate


A map of the languages of Efate by population
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Note that the spelling of language names in this map may not be the same as in the body of the text.

Ifira-Mele

Island name: Efate
Proto-language: Polynesian outlier
Other names: Fila(-Mele), Mele(-Fila)
Reading:
Biggs, Bruce 1975. A Mele-Fila vocabulary. Auckland: Te Reo Monographs * A longish wordlist with English index. 77pp.
Capell, A. 1942. Notes on the Fila language, New Hebrides. JPS 51:153-180 * A short vocabulary, grammatical notes and a text.
Clark, Ross 1975. Mele notes. Working Papers in Linguistics 40. Dept. of Anthropology, University of Auckland * A very brief outline of the grammar and vocabulary, with some comparative notes. 26pp.
Clark, Ross 1975. Two Mele texts. Working Papers in Linguistics 44. Dept. of Anthropology, University of Auckland * The title says it all.
Clark, Ross 1982. 'Necessary' and 'unnecessary' borrowing. In Amran Halim, Lois Carrington & S.A. Wurm (eds.), Papers from the Third International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, vol. 3: Accent on variety. Canberra: PL, C-76:137-143 * Examines loanwords in Ifira-Mele, pointing out that many of these borrowings have displaced ? or are displacing ? perfectly "good" words already in the language.
Clark, Ross 1991. Mele-Fila. In Darrell T. Tryon (ed.), Comparative Austronesian dictionary: An introduction to Austronesian studies. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter; pp.945-948.
Kuki, Hiroshi 1976. Field report on Fila, New Hebrides. Oceanic Studies 1:82-86.

Nakanamanga

Island name: Efate
Proto-language: PCV
Ross Clark (1985) local group / Tryon (1976) sub-group: Efate-Shepherds
Other names: Efate(se), Havannah Harbour, Nguna, North Efate, Sesake, Tongoan
Reading:
Codrington, R.H. 1885. The Melanesian languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp.471-477.
Gabelentz, H.C. von der 1873. Die melanesischen Sprachen nach ihrem grammatischen Bau und ihrer Verwandschaft unter sich und mit den Malaiisch-Polynesischen Sprachen. Abhandlungen der Königlich Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-Historische Klasse 7:5-30
MacDonald, D. 1889. Sketch of the grammar of the Efatese language. In D. MacDonald (ed.), New Hebrides linguistics: Introductory. Three New Hebrides languages (Efatese, Eromangan, Santo). Melbourne: Trustees of the Melbourne Public Library; pp.5-57.
MacDonald, D. 1894. The Asiatic origin of the Oceanic languages: Etymological dictionary of the language of Efate (New Hebrides). (Place?): Melville, Mullen and Slade
MacDonald, D. 1907. The Oceanic languages: their grammatical structure, vocabulary and origin. London: Henry Frowde * A grammar and dictionary of the Havannah Harbour dialect, marred by his attempts to prove a Semitic origin of the Oceanic languages. (Ray (1926:197) says that Churchill (1911) describes this "as the most valuable contribution to our knowledge of any speech of Melanesia"; but Ray continues, "with this judgment I do not agree".) xv + 352pp.
Ray, Sidney H. 1887. Sketch of Nguna grammar. Journal of the Anthropological Institute 16:409-418 * A brief sketch of the grammar of the Nguna dialect.
Ray, Sidney H. 1926. A comparative study of the Melanesian island languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; pp.205-221.
Schütz, Albert J. 1968. A pattern of morphophonemic alternation in Nguna, New Hebrides. PL, A-15:41-47 * Looks briefly at the pattern of verb-stem-initial consonant alternation.
Schütz, Albert J. 1969. Nguna texts. Honolulu: Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 4 * A substantial collection of textual data with interlinear glosses. xvii + 325pp.
Schütz, Albert J. 1969. Nguna grammar. Honolulu: Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 5 * A fairly brief treatment of some aspects of phonology and grammar. 88pp.
Walsh, D.S. 1978. Degrees of genetic relationship between Raga, Nguna, Waya and Bau. In S.A. Wurm & Lois Carrington (eds.), Second International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics: Proceedings. Canberra: PL, C-61:903-910 * A lexicostatistical comparison of two Vanuatu and two Fijian languages which comes up with somewhat different results from earlier work in this area.

South Efate

Island name: Efate
Proto-language: PCV
Ross Clark (1985) local group / Tryon (1976) sub-group: Efate-Shepherds
Other names: Erakor, Eratap, Eton, Pango