Lemerig 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 on

Vanua Lava Vanua Lava is the second largest of the Banks Islands in Torba Province, Vanuatu, after slightly larger Gaua. It is located about 120 km north-northeast of Espiritu Santo and north of Gaua. Name The name ''Vanua Lava'' comes from the ...

, 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 ...

. Lemerig is no longer actively spoken. The 2 remaining speakers live on the northern coast of the island. The language has receded in favour of its neighbours

Mwotlap 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 ...

and Vera'a.

Name

The name ''Lemerig'' (spelled ''Lēmērig'' in the local orthography) refers to a now abandoned village in northern

. Its name in

is ''Lemyig'' . It is likely the name contains a descendant of the Proto-Torres-Banks word ''*riɣi'' meaning "small".

Dialects

Lemerig has sometimes been referred to using the names of its local varieties: ''Päk''; ''Sasar''; ''Alo-Teqel''. Judging from wordlists published by missionary and linguist Robert Codrington,See Codrington 1885
pp.39-52 sqq.
these three varieties were very close to each other. The little differences there were went extinct during the 20th century.

Phonology

Lemerig has 11

phonemic In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

vowels. These are all short

monophthong A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, w ...

s .

Grammar

The system of

personal pronoun Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...

s in Lemerig contrasts

clusivity In linguistics, clusivity is a grammatical distinction between ''inclusive'' and ''exclusive'' first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called ''inclusive " we"'' and ''exclusive "we"''. Inclusive "we" specifically includes the addresse ...

, and distinguishes four

numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers ca ...

(singular, dual,

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribun ...

, plural). Spatial reference in Lemerig is based on a system of geocentric (

absolute Absolute may refer to: Companies * Absolute Entertainment, a video game publisher * Absolute Radio, (formerly Virgin Radio), independent national radio station in the UK * Absolute Software Corporation, specializes in security and data risk manag ...

) directionals, which is in part typical of

Oceanic languages 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 ...

, in part innovative.

References

Bibliography

* * * . * * *. * François, Alexandre & Taitus Sërortēlsöm. 2006.
''Nvāv ām a Lēmērig — Storian long lanwis blong Lemerig (Vanua Lava, Banks, Vanuatu)''
Collection of stories from the oral tradition, monolingual in Lemerig. Paris.

External links

Audio recordings in the Lemerig language
in

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre o ...

, by linguist A. François (''

Pangloss Collection The Pangloss Collection is a digital library whose objective is to store and facilitate access to audio recordings in endangered languages of the world. Developed by the LACITO centre of CNRS in Paris, the collection provides free online access to ...

''). Features a presentation of the language, and pictures of some of the last speakers. Languages of Vanuatu Banks–Torres languages Torba Province Endangered Austronesian languages {{SOceanic-lang-stub