Lavukaleve is one of the four Central Solomons languages of the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

. It is thus assumed to be the descendant of the languages spoken in the Solomon Islands before the spread of the much more numerous

Austronesian languages The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken ...

. The name Lavukaleve derives from the

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

'' Lavukal''. The Lavukals are the indigenous peoples of the

Russell Islands :''See also Russell Island (disambiguation).'' The Russell Islands are two small islands ( Pavuvu and Mbanika), as well as several islets, of volcanic origin, in the Central Province of Solomon Islands. They are located approximately northwe ...

, part of the Solomon Islands Central Province. A comprehensive grammatical description of Lavukaleve was published by the linguist Angela Terrill in 2003. Lavukaleve is spoken in about eleven main villages. It used to be spoken predominantly on

Pavuvu Pavuvu is the largest of the Russell Islands in Central Province, Solomon Islands. It is located northwest of Guadalcanal. The area is . The largest village is Nukufero on the north coast. The island had served as a coconut plantation for nativ ...

, the largest island, but the speakers were forcefully relocated by the British to the smaller islands in order to make way for plantations.

Phonology

Consonants

* Sounds /b, d/ are prenasalized ��b, ⁿdin intervocalic positions. * only occurs in loanwords from Pijin. * /t, k/ can also be heard as aspirated ʰ, kʰin free variation. * /r/ can also be heard as a tap �or glide �in free variation.

Vowels

* Vowels /i, o/ can be heard as �, ɔwhen in unstressed syllables.

References

External links

Anglican Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Eucharistic prayers and Catechism in Lavukaleve
from

Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ...

, transcribed by Richard Mammana
Hai-Foiae Sevo Lavu Kaleve Ena
A Liturgy for Melanesia in Lavukaleve (1973) * Materials on Lavukaleve are included in the open access

Arthur Capell Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages. Early life Capell was born in Newtown, New South W ...

collections
AC1
an
AC2
held by Paradisec. Languages of the Solomon Islands Central Solomon languages {{papuan-lang-stub