Lo-Toga 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 580 people on the islands of Lo and

Toga The toga (, ), a distinctive garment of ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tra ...

, in the Torres group of northern

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 ...

. The language has sometimes been called ''Loh'' (''

sic The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any e ...

'') or ''Toga'', after either of its two dialects.

Name

The language is named after the two islands where it is spoken: Lo and

Situation and dialects

Its 580 speakers live mostly in Lo and

, 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 Linua is an island in the Torres Islands archipelago in Torba Province of Vanuatu in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Geography Linua has a length of 2.8 km and diameter of 1 km. The estimated terrain elevation above sea level is 23 m ...

and

Tegua Tegua is an island in Vanuatu's Torres Islands chain, located in Torba Province. Geography The island spans 7 km by 6.5 km; on the eastern side of the island is Lateu Bay indented 1.8 km. Ngwel Island is located 600 meters off the ...

. 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

Vowels

The 13 vowel phonemes of the Lo dialect include 8

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, wh ...

s /i e ɛ a ə ɔ o ʉ/, and five

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...

s /i͡e i͡ɛ i͡a o͡ə o͡ɔ/.

Grammar

Lo-Toga presents various forms of

verb serialization The serial verb construction, also known as (verb) serialization or verb stacking, is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more verbs or verb phrases are strung together in a single clause.Tallerman, M. (1998). ''Understanding Syntax''. London: ...

. 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 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 addressee ...

, and distinguishes three

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 can ...

(singular, dual, plural). Together with its neighbour Hiw, Lo-Toga has developed a rich system of verbal number, whereby certain verbs change their root depending on the number of their main participant. François (2019). Lo-Toga has 18 such pairs of verbs. Spatial reference in Lo-Toga 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 manage ...

) 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 ...

, and yet innovative. François (2015: 175-176).

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * . *

External links

Linguistic map of north Vanuatu, showing range of Lo-Toga

Audio recordings in the Lo-Toga language
in open access, by A. François (source: ''

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 ...

'').
''Online Lo-Toga—English dictionary''
by A. François (work in progress)
''Ne Vavatema Vivda Pah Tage Vivda Volquane Lema Rua''
Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Toga (1907) {{Austronesian languages Languages of Vanuatu Banks–Torres languages Torba Province