Vurës language

Vurës
Vureas
Pronunciation	[βyˈrœs]
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Vanua Lava
Native speakers	2,000 (2016)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic North-Central Vanuatu North Vanuatu Torres-Banks Vurës
Language codes
ISO 639-3	msn (shared with Mwesen)
Glottolog	vure1239
ELP
Vurës is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

File:WIKITONGUES- Betsy speaking Vurës.webm

A Vurës speaker, recorded in Vanuatu.

Vurës (Vureas, Vures) is an Oceanic language spoken in the southern area of Vanua Lava Island, in the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu, by about 2000 speakers.

Vurës was described by linguist Catriona Malau, in the form of a grammar and a dictionary.

Name

The name Vurës [βyˈrœs] is named after the bay located in southwestern Vanua Lava in the language itself. In Mota, the bay is referred to as Vureas [βureas]. Cognates in other Torres-Banks languages include Mwotlap Vuyes [βuˈjɛs] and Mwesen Vures [βuˈrɛs]. These come from a reconstructed Proto-Torres–Banks form *βureas(i,u), with an unknown final high vowel.

Dialectology

Vurës shows enough similarities with the neighbouring language Mwesen that the two have sometimes been considered dialects of a single language, sometimes called Mosina (after the name of Mwesen village in the language Mota). And indeed, a 2018 glottometric study has calculated that Vurës and Mwesen share 85% of their historical innovations, revealing a long history of shared development between these two lects.

However, studies have shown that Mwesen and Vurës have various dissimilarities, e.g. in their vowel systems, in their noun articles, in their pronoun paradigms — enough to be considered clearly distinct.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial- velar	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	k͡pʷ ⟨q⟩		t̪ ⟨t⟩		k ⟨k⟩	(ʔ)
	prenasal		ᵐb ⟨b⟩	ⁿd̪ ⟨d⟩
Nasal		ŋ͡mʷ ⟨m̄⟩	m ⟨m⟩		n ⟨n⟩	ŋ ⟨n̄⟩
Fricative			β ⟨v⟩		s ⟨s⟩	ɣ ⟨g⟩
Liquid	rhotic				r ⟨r⟩
	lateral				l ⟨l⟩
Semivowel		w ⟨w⟩

• /r/ is also heard as a tap [ɾ] in free variation.
• A glottal stop /ʔ/ only rarely occurs in some words.
• /β/ is heard as [p̚] before a voiceless stop.
• /k͡pʷ/ is heard as [k͡p] when preceding another consonant.
• Stop sounds /t̪ k/ are aspirated [t̪ʰ kʰ] before vowels.

Vowels

Vurës has 9 phonemic vowels. These are all short monophthongs /i e ɛ a œ ø y ɔ o/:

Vurës vowels

	Front		Back
	plain	round
Close	i ⟨i⟩	y ⟨u⟩	(ʊ) ⟨u⟩
Close-mid	e ⟨ē⟩	ø ⟨ö⟩	o ⟨ō⟩
Open-mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩	œ ⟨ë⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩
Open	a ⟨a⟩

• [ʊ] is only a marginal sound that occurs in a small amount of words, mostly borrowings.
• The vowel inventory also includes a diphthong [i​͡a] ⟨ia⟩.

Sample text

La masawre i no no gö mörös nana qan̄ris o qiat, nana qēs o ralēt, qēs lēt lēt qēt, na van me, na sēs o um. Na sēs qēt o um, nana le o ralēt, na tuwegev. No mö tuwegev kal qēt, nana bun kēl o vet ni van lē m̄ēkē qan̄ris, bun bun qēt o vet, mē qēt na ukëg o ev ni ës ti.

'When I want to bake taro, I break up the firewood, break up all the firewood, then I come and I take the stones out of the oven. I take out all the stones from the oven, I get the firewood, and I make the fire. I build up the fire, then I put the stones back on top of the oven, I put all the stones back, then I leave the fire to smoke.'

References

Bibliography

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External links

• Vurës—English dictionary, by Catriona Malau.
• Audio recordings in the Vurës language, in open access, by A. François (Pangloss Collection, CNRS).