Languages of Pentecost


A map of the languages of Pentecost, Ambae and Maewo 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.

Apma

Island name: Pentecost
Proto-language: PCV
Ross Clark (1985) local group / Tryon (1976) sub-group: South Pentecost
Bwatnapni, Melsisi
Reading:
Haudricourt, André-G. 1960. Note grammaticale sur la langue de Melsisi, île de PentecÔte, Nouvelles-Hébrides. Journal de la Société des Océanistes 16:113-116.

Raga

Island name: Pentecost
Proto-language: PNV
Ross Clark (1985) local group / Tryon (1976) sub-group: Aoba-Maewo
Other names: Arag, Lamalanga, Loltavola, Loltong, Qatvenua, Vunmarama
Reading:
Codrington, R.H. 1885. The Melanesian languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp.431-441.
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 7:42-50.
Ivens, W.G. 1937-39. A grammar of the language of Lamalanga, North Raga, New Hebrides. BSOAS 9:733-763 * A brief sketch of the phonology, morphology and syntax, with a short text.
Walsh, D.S. 1962. The phonemes of Raga. Te Reo 5:57-60 * Basically a set of minimal pairs showing phonemic contrasts in Raga.
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.
Walsh, D.S. 1978. Limitations of lexico-statistics for subgrouping: examples from four Eastern Oceanic languages. Te Reo 21:3-14 * Compares four Oceanic languages (one of which is Raga) to illustrate problems in using lexicostatistical data for subgrouping purposes.
Walsh, D.S. 1980. Patterns of metaphor in Raga plant nomenclature. Ethnomedizin/ Ethnomedicine 6,1-4:127-137 * An examination of botanical terminology in Raga showing the widespread use of metaphorical expressions for specific and varietal terms (though not for life form and generic terms).
Walsh, D.S. 1982. The restricted distribution of Raga /k/: starting point for a subgrouping hypothesis. In Rainer Carle, Martine Heinschke, Peter W. Pink, Christel Rost & Karen Stadtlander (eds.), GAVA': Studies in Austronesian languages and cultures dedicated to Hans Kähler. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer; pp.237-251 * Raga /k/ is found almost exclusively in pronouns and some grammatical items. Since similar distributions are found in other languages of a hypothesised East New Hebrides-West Santo subgroup, Walsh concludes that this is a strong argument in support of such a subgroup.
Walsh, D.S. 1990. Raga descent group and kinship nomenclature sixty years on: a comparison of Rivers' 1914 description with some recent data. In Jeremy H.C.S. Davidson (ed.), Pacific Island languages: Essays in honour of G.B. Milner. London and Honolulu: School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and University of Hawaii Press; pp.111-118 * Compares kinship terminology published by Rivers in 1914 (The history of Melanesian society) with data collected in the 1970s, and shows that a number of terms have broadened their range of reference while others have undergone narrowing, possibly as a result of the disappearance of sections and totems from Raga society.
Walsh, D.S. 1991. Raga. In Darrell T. Tryon (ed.), Comparative Austronesian dictionary: An introduction to Austronesian studies. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter; pp.805-816.
Walsh, D.S. & Richard Leona F/c. Ihan manu ata Raga - An emic classification of the birds of North Pentecost. In John Lynch & Fa'afo Pat (eds.), Oceanic studies: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Oceanic Linguistics. Canberra: PL * A folk-taxonomy of terms for the birds of Raga.
Walsh, D.S. & W. Hadye Lii 1981. Veveven bwatun tauvwa, ata la vanua Raga: a story about the beginning of creation, from Raga Island. In Jim Hollyman & Andrew Pawley (eds.), Studies in Pacific languages and cultures in honour of Bruce Biggs. Auckland: Linguistic Society of New Zealand; pp.361-382 * A longish text in Raga with free translation, linguistic analysis, and annotations.
Yoshioka, Masanori & Richard Leona 1992. A vocabulary of the North Raga language - Olgeta tok long lanwis blong Not Pentecost. Kindai (Journal of the University of Kobe) 72 (June):1-39 * A list of about 800 words in Raga with equivalents in English and Bislama.

Sa

Island name: Pentecost
Proto-language: PNV
Ross Clark (1985) local group / Tryon (1976) sub-group: South Pentecost
Other names: Ponorwol

Seke

Island name: Pentecost
Proto-language: PCV
Ross Clark (1985) local group / Tryon (1976) sub-group: South Pentecost
Ninebulo

Sowa

Island name: Pentecost
Proto-language: PCV
Ross Clark (1985) local group / Tryon (1976) sub-group: South Pentecost