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Vurës language

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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[βyˈrœs]
Native toVanuatu
RegionVanua Lava
Native speakers
2,000 (2016)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3msn (shared with Mwesen)
Glottologvure1239
ELPVurës
Vurës is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
A Vurës speaker, recorded in Vanuatu.

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

Name

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The name Vurës [βyˈrœs] is named after the bay located in southwestern Vanua Lava in the language itself. In Mota, the bay is referred to as Vureas [βureas]. Cognates in other Torres-Banks languages include Mwotlap Vuyes [βuˈjɛs] and Mwesen Vures [βuˈrɛs]. These come from a reconstructed Proto-Torres–Banks form *βureas(i,u), with an unknown final high vowel.

Dialectology

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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

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Consonants

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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

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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]

Sample text

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La masawre i no no gö mörös nana qan̄ris o qiat, nana qēs o ralēt, qēs lēt lēt qēt, na van me, na sēs o um. Na sēs qēt o um, nana le o ralēt, na tuwegev. No mö tuwegev kal qēt, nana bun kēl o vet ni van lē m̄ēkē qan̄ris, bun bun qēt o vet, mē qēt na ukëg o ev ni ës ti.

'When I want to bake taro, I break up the firewood, break up all the firewood, then I come and I take the stones out of the oven. I take out all the stones from the oven, I get the firewood, and I make the fire. I build up the fire, then I put the stones back on top of the oven, I put all the stones back, then I leave the fire to smoke.'[13]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Vurës at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
  2. ^ a b Malau 2016.
  3. ^ Malau 2021.
  4. ^ Kalyan & François 2018.
  5. ^ François 2005.
  6. ^ François 2007.
  7. ^ François 2009.
  8. ^ François 2016.
  9. ^ a b Malau 2016, p. 20.
  10. ^ François 2005, p. 446.
  11. ^ François 2011, p. 194.
  12. ^ François 2005, p. 459-460.
  13. ^ Malau 2016, pp. 41–42.

Bibliography

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Look up Category:Vurës lemmas in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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