Kiai is an
Oceanic language
The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...
spoken by about 450 people in the central highlands of
Espiritu Santo island
Espiritu Santo (, ; ) is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of and a population of around 40,000 according to the 2009 census.
Geography
The island belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region o ...
(
Sanma Province
Sanma is a province located in the Northern part of the nation of Vanuatu, occupying the nation's largest island, Espiritu Santo, which is located approximately 2,500 km northeast of Sydney, Australia.
The name Sanma is derived from the init ...
), in
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
.
Name
The name ''Kiai'' derives from ''kiai'', meaning "no", due to a trend in the area to name languages based on their word for "no", used as a linguistic
shibboleth
A shibboleth (; hbo, , šībbōleṯ) is any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another. Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwor ...
. The language is called ''vara Kiai'' (from ''vara'' "speech, language"), i.e. 'the language that says ''kiai''
or ''no''.
The same language has been named Fortsenal, based on the name of the village (locally ''Vorozenale'') where the speakers live.
Notes
References
* Vara Kiai: a Kiai wordlist / Tomas Ludvigson, Auckland
.Z.: Dept. of Anthropology, University of Auckland, 1989
*
Crowley, Terry. 2000. The language situation in Vanuatu. ''Current Issues in Language Planning'', 1(1). 47–132.
Espiritu Santo languages
Languages of Vanuatu
{{SOceanic-lang-stub