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Qat (deity)
Qat (or ''Qet'', ''Kpwet'', ''Iqet'', ''Ikpwet'' etc. – see below) is the principal god in the oral mythology of the Banks Islands, a small archipelago of northern Vanuatu, Melanesia. Although Qat was never formally worshipped as a deity, the folklore of these once animist populations traditionally referred, and still does, to Qat as the spirit to whom we humans owe several elements of our culture: the world itself (in the form of the Torres and Banks archipelagoes); Night; Death; women; marriage rules and incest prohibition; as well as the ''song language'' in use throughout the area, locally known as "the language of Qat". This mythological figure has connections with the god known as Tagaro in other parts of Vanuatu. Name The deity is called ''Qat'' (pronounced ) in Mota, an Oceanic language which was first documented by Robert Codrington at the end of the 19th century. That pronunciation (spelled ''Qat'' or ''Kpwat'') is also found in Nume and Lakon. The same hero ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Name
A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A personal name identifies, not necessarily uniquely, a ''specific'' individual human. The name of a specific entity is sometimes called a proper name (although that term has a philosophical meaning as well) and is, when consisting of only one word, a proper noun. Other nouns are sometimes called "common names" or (obsolete) "general names". A name can be given to a person, place, or thing; for example, parents can give their child a name or a scientist can give an element a name. Etymology The word ''name'' comes from Old English ''nama''; cognate with Old High German (OHG) ''namo'', Sanskrit (''nāman''), Latin ''Roman naming conventions, nomen'', Greek language, Greek (''onoma''), and Persian language, Persian (''nâm''), from the Proto-Indo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lakon Language
Lakon is an Oceanic language, spoken on the west coast of Gaua island in Vanuatu. Names The language name ''Lakon'' refers originally to the area where it is spoken ‒ namely Lakona Bay, corresponding to the west coast of Gaua. The alternative name ''Lakona'' is from the Mota language. These names are derived from a Proto-Torres-Banks form *''laᵑgona'', of unknown meaning. Lakon had four dialects, named Qatareu (''Qätärew'' ), Vure (''Vurē'' ), Toglatareu, and Togla. Phonology Consonants Lakon has 16 phonemic consonants. François (2022). The glottal stop only occurs before vowels in syllable-initial position. While non-phonemic, it is sometimes noted in the orthography, using a mark. Vowels Lakon has 16 phonemic vowels. These include 8 short /i ɪ ɛ æ a ɔ ʊ u/ and 8 long vowels /iː ɪː ɛː æː aː ɔː ʊː uː/. Historically, the phonemicisation of vowel length originates in the compensatory lengthening of short vowels when the alveolar trill w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night
Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends on the location and varies throughout the year, based on factors such as season and latitude. The word can be used in a different sense as the time between bedtime and morning. In common communication, the word ''night'' is used as a farewell ("good night", sometimes shortened to "night"), mainly when someone is going to sleep or leaving. Astronomical night is the period between astronomical dusk and astronomical dawn when the Sun is between 18 and 90 degrees below the horizon and does not illuminate the sky. As seen from latitudes between about 48.56° and 65.73° north or south of the Equator, complete darkness does not occur around the summer solstice because, although the Sun sets, it is never more than 18° below the horizon at lowe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain death is sometimes used as a legal definition of death. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose shortly after death. Death is an inevitable process that eventually occurs in almost all organisms. Death is generally applied to whole organisms; the similar process seen in individual components of an organism, such as cells or tissues, is necrosis. Something that is not considered an organism, such as a virus, can be physically destroyed but is not said to die. As of the early 21st century, over 150,000 humans die each day, with ageing being by far the most common cause of death. Many cultures and religions have the idea of an afterlife, and also may hold the idea of judgement of good and bad deeds in one's life ( h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dracaena (plant)
''Dracaena'' () is a genus of about 120 species of trees and succulent plant, succulent shrubs. The formerly accepted genera ''Pleomele (genus), Pleomele'' and ''Sansevieria'' are now included in ''Dracaena''. In the APG IV system, APG IV classification system, it is placed in the family (biology), family Asparagaceae, subfamily Nolinoideae (formerly the family Ruscaceae). It has also formerly been separated (sometimes with ''Cordyline'') into the family Dracaenaceae or placed in the Agavaceae (now Agavoideae). The name ''dracaena'' is derived from the romanized form of the Ancient Greek – ''drakaina'', "female dragon". The majority of the species are native plant, native to Africa, southern Asia through to northern Australia, with two species in tropical Central America. Description Species of ''Dracaena'' have a secondary thickening meristem in their trunk, termed Dracaenoid thickening by some authors, which is quite different from the thickening meristem found in dicoty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hiw Language
Hiw (sometimes spelled ''Hiu'') is an Oceanic language spoken on the island of Hiw, in the Torres Islands of Vanuatu. With about 280 speakers, Hiw is considered endangered. Hiw is distinct from Lo-Toga, the other language of the Torres group. All Hiw speakers are bilingual in Bislama, and most also speak Lo-Toga. Name The language is named after the island. Phonology Vowels Hiw has 9 phonemic vowels. These are all short monophthongs : François (2021). The three central vowels are all rounded. becomes a glide whenever it's followed by another vowel. The high back rounded vowel occurs, but only as an allophone of and after labio-velar consonants. always becomes after a labio-velar, while only becomes in pre-tonic syllables, and then only optionally. Consonants Hiw has 14 consonants. All plosives are voiceless. Hiw is the only Austronesian language whose consonant inventory includes a prestopped velar lateral approximant ; this complex segment is Hiw's only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lo-Toga Language
Lo-Toga is an Oceanic language spoken by about 580 people on the islands of Lo and Toga, in the Torres group of northern Vanuatu. The language has sometimes been called ''Loh'' (''sic'') or ''Toga'', after either of its two dialects. Name The language is named after the two islands where it is spoken: Lo and Toga. Situation and dialects Its 580 speakers live mostly in Lo and Toga, the two main islands in the southern half of the Torres group. The same language is also spoken by the small populations of the two other islands of Linua and Tegua. Lo-Toga is itself divided into two very close dialects, ''Lo'' (spoken on Lo island) and ''Toga'' (spoken on Toga). The inhabitants of northern Vanuatu generally don't draw a distinction between dialects and languages. Conversely, Lo-Toga is a distinct language from the other language of the Torres group, Hiw. Phonology The Lo dialect of Lo-Toga phonemically contrasts 16 consonants and 13 vowels. François (2021). Consonants V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torres Islands
The Torres Islands are in the Torba Province of the country of Vanuatu, and is that country’s the northernmost island group. The chain of islands that make up this micro-archipelago straddles the broader cultural boundary between Island Melanesia and several Polynesian outliers located in the neighbouring Solomon Islands. To the island chain’s north is Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands, to its south is Espiritu Santo, and to its southeast are the Banks Islands. To the west, beneath the ocean surface, is the deep Torres Trench, which is the subduction zone between the Australian and Pacific plates. The seven islands in the Torres group, from north to south, are Hiw or ''Hiu'' (the largest), Metoma, Tegua, Ngwel (an uninhabited islet), Linua, Lo or ''Loh'', and Toga. The island chain stretches across . The highest point of the chain is only above sea level. These islands are less rugged than the other islands of Vanuatu that lie further to the south. Contrary to popul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Torres–Banks Language
Proto-Torres-Banks (abbr. PTB) is the reconstructed ancestor of the seventeen languages of the Torres and Banks Islands of Vanuatu. Like all indigenous languages of Vanuatu, it belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian languages. Descendants Proto-Torres-Banks is the shared ancestor of the following modern languages: Hiw, Lo-Toga, Lehali, Löyöp, Volow, Mwotlap, Lemerig, Vera'a, Vurës, Mwesen, Mota, Nume, Dorig, Koro, Olrat, Lakon, and Mwerlap. Reconstruction Proto-Torres-Banks, as reconstructed with the comparative method from the attested daughter languages, evidently represented an early, mutually intelligible chain of Oceanic dialects in the northern part of Vanuatu, as evidenced by the pattern of loss and retention of the Proto-Oceanic phoneme ''*R'', which merged with ''*r'' in the early history of the North-Central Vanuatu dialect chain. It therefore is not a "true" proto-language in the sense of an undifferentiated language ancestral to all Torres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vera'a Language
Vera'a , formerly known by its Mota name ''Vatrata'', is an Oceanic language spoken on the western coast of Vanua Lava Island, in the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu. Vera'a was described in 2011 by linguist Stefan Schnell. Schnell (2011). Name The language ''Vera'a'' is named after the village where it is spoken. This village is known locally as ''Vera'a'' , even though foreigners often ''Vatrata'' after its name in Mota. These names ultimately reflect a protoform *''βaturata'' in Proto-Torres-Banks — literally "flat stone": *''βatu'' "stone" (< *) + *''rata'' "flat" (< *''rataR'' < [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mwotlap Language
Mwotlap (pronounced ; formerly known as ''Motlav'') is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,100 people in Vanuatu. The majority of speakers are found on the island of Motalava in the Banks Islands, with smaller communities in the islands of Ra (or ''Aya'') and Vanua Lava, as well as migrant groups in the two main cities of the country, Santo and Port Vila. Mwotlap was first described in any detail in 2001, by the linguist Alexandre François. Volow, which used to be spoken on the same island, may be considered a dialect or a separate language. The language Name The language is named after the island. Geographic distribution Mwotlap is spoken by about 2,100 people in the Banks Islands, in the North of Vanuatu. Among them, 1,640 live on the island of Mota Lava and its neighbor island, Ra. It is also spoken by a few hundred people living elsewhere in Vanuatu: * Vanua Lava, particularly in the northeast * Several other northern Vanuatu islands including Ureparapara, Gaua, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mwesen Language
Mwesen (formerly known by its Mota name ''Mosina'') is an Oceanic language spoken in the southeastern area of Vanua Lava Island, in the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu, by about 10 speakers. François (2012): 88). Mwesen shows many similarities with the island's dominant language Vurës, to such an extent that they have sometimes been considered dialects of a single language. However, studies have shown that Mwesen and Vurës have various dissimilarities, e.g. in their vowel systems, in their noun articles, in their pronoun paradigms. François (2009), François (2016). Name The name ''Mwesen'' is originally the name of a village, in the eastern part of Vanua Lava; it is spelled ''M̄ēsēn'' both in Mwesen itself, and in neighbouring Vurës. The village is known as ''Am̄sēn'' (with locative prefix ''a-'') in Mwotlap, and as ''M̄osina'' (modern: ''M̄osna'' ) in Mota. All these different names are derived from a Proto-Torres-Banks form *''mʷosina''. The old Mota ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
