Lenakel, or West Tanna, is a
dialect chain
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
spoken on the western coast of
Tanna Island
Tanna (sometimes misspelled ''Tana'') is an island in Tafea Province of Vanuatu.
Name
The name ''Tanna'', first cited by James Cook, is derived from the word ''tana'' in the Kwamera language, meaning "earth".
Etymologically, ''Tanna'' goes bac ...
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 ...
.
Lenakel is one of five languages spoken on Tanna. The native name for the language is ''Netvaar'', and speakers refer to their language as ''Nakaraan taha Lenakel'' "the language of Lenakel". Lenakel has been extensively researched and documented by
John Lynch, and both a
dictionary
A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...
and a detailed linguistic description of the language have been published.
Classification
Lenakel is an
Austronesian language of southern Vanuatu. Its closest relatives are the other four
Tanna languages spoken on the island of Tanna. It is particularly closely related to the
Whitesands language and
North Tanna, the two languages closest in geographic space to the Lenakel language area. Although none of the languages of Tanna are strictly
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
, there is a high degree of
lexical
Lexical may refer to:
Linguistics
* Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language
* Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification
* Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
* Lex ...
overlap, and the
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
s of Lenakel, Whitesands, and North Tanna are nearly identical. Based on
Swadesh list
The Swadesh list ("Swadesh" is pronounced ) is a classic compilation of tentatively universal concepts for the purposes of lexicostatistics. Translations of the Swadesh list into a set of languages allow researchers to quantify the interrelatedness ...
data, Lenakel was found to be 73-80% lexically identical to North Tanna and 75-81% lexically identical to Whitesands. Linguist D.T. Tryon has referred to the linguistic situation in Vanuatu as one of "language-chaining," a reference to
Dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
, the idea within
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
that
dialects
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
exist along a continuum or chain within a language area.
Geographic distribution
Lenakel is spoken on Tanna, an island in the southern part of the 82-island chain comprising Vanuatu. It is spoken by between 8,500 and 11,500 people and is concentrated in the central west part of the island.
Isangel
Isangel is a town in Vanuatu.
Located on the island of Tanna, it is the provincial administrative capital of Tafea Province.
Population
The town has a population of about 1,200, most of them Melanesians; the major languages of the area are Le ...
, the administrative capital of
Tafea Province
Tafea is the southernmost of the six provinces of Vanuatu.
The name is an acronym for the five main islands that make up the province: Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwa.
History
Unlike the other provinces of Vanuatu, the territoria ...
, exists within the Lenakel language area, as does
Lenakel
Lenakel is the largest town on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. It has a population of 1,473.
It is located on the west coast of the island near the administrative capital of Isangel and serves as a major port of entry.
Language
It is the cente ...
, the largest city on the island of Tanna. There are significant Lenakel-speaking communities in other areas of Vanuatu, such as
New Caledonia
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and
Port Vila
Port Vila (french: Port-Vila), or simply Vila (; french: Vila; bi, Vila ), is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. It is located on the island of Efate.
Its population in the last census (2009) was 44,040, an increase of 35% on the pr ...
on the island of
Efate
Efate (french: Éfaté) is an island in the Pacific Ocean which is part of the Shefa Province in Vanuatu. It is also known as Île Vate.
Geography
It is the most populous (approx. 66,000) island in Vanuatu. Efate's land area of makes it Vanua ...
.
Dialects
The dialect situation within Lenakel is complicated by the fact that native speakers of the language have differing opinions on whether or not closely related languages such as Whitesands and North Tanna are actually separate languages or whether they are dialects of Lenakel. Linguists such as John Lynch and
Terry Crowley
Terrence Michael Crowley (born February 16, 1947) is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder and utility player from through , most notably as a member of the Baltimore Oriol ...
have suggested that further research is needed in order to more firmly establish dialect and language boundaries on Tanna.
The most reliable information to date suggests that there are up to ten dialects of Lenakel, including
Loanatit,
Nerauya,
Itonga, and
Ikyoo.
Lenakel is considered the most prestigious language spoken on Tanna, partially because it has been in use as a church language for over a century.
Phonology
The phonemic inventory is as follows:
Consonants
* When followed by an , sonorant sounds are heard phonetically as voiceless .
* is mostly a flap sound, in word-final position, it is heard as a trill sound .
* is noted as a high central glide sound, phonetically noted as or .
* can become palatalized when occurring before . It may also sound voiced in different positions as .
* can become a voiced stop or fricative when in intervocalic positions.
* can become aspirated before . when heard before an can have allophones as .
* A word-final , can freely vary, being heard as .
Vowels
* and become glide sounds and when adjacent to vowels.
* In closed syllables, and can be heard as and .
* and are heard as and before a consonant. When occurring before a vowel or in word-final position, they are heard phonemically.
* is heard as high as when occurring after alveolar consonants.
* After a labialized bilabial consonant, is heard as . When occurring after , it is fronted as .
Notes
References
*
*
*
External links
*
Online lénakel dictionary and phrases with pronunciation recordedResources in and about the Lenakel language
{{Austronesian languages
Languages of Vanuatu
South Vanuatu languages