Lakon language

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Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu

title: "Lakon language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-vanuatu", "banks–torres-languages", "torba-province", "vulnerable-languages"] description: "Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakon_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Lakon
pronunciation
altname	Lakona, Vure
states	Vanuatu
region	Gaua
speakers	800
date	2012
ref
familycolor	Austronesian
fam2	Malayo-Polynesian
fam3	Oceanic
fam4	Southern Oceanic
fam5	North-Central Vanuatu
fam6	North Vanuatu
fam7	Torres-Banks
iso3	lkn
dia1	Qatareu
dia2	Vure
dia3	Toglatareu
dia4	Togla
glotto	lako1245
glottorefname	Lakon
notice	IPA
map	Lang Status 80-VU.svg
mapcaption
::

Lakon is an Oceanic language, spoken on the west coast of Gaua island in Vanuatu.

Names

The language name Lakon refers originally to the area where it is spoken—namely Lakona Bay, corresponding to the west coast of Gaua. The alternative name Lakona is from the Mota language. These names are derived from a Proto-Torres-Banks form *laᵑgona, of unknown meaning.

Lakon had four dialects, named Qatareu (Qätärew, ), Vure (Vurē, ), Toglatareu, and Togla.

Phonology

Consonants

Lakon has 16 phonemic consonants.

::data[format=table title="Lakon consonants"]

Labiovelar	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Dorsal	Glottal	Plosive	Nasal	Fricative	Rhotic	Lateral	Approximant


	~



::

The glottal stop only occurs before vowels in syllable-initial position. While non-phonemic, it is sometimes noted in the orthography, using a mark.

Vowels

Lakon has 16 phonemic vowels. These include 8 short /i ɪ ɛ æ a ɔ ʊ u/ and 8 long vowels /iː ɪː ɛː æː aː ɔː ʊː uː/. ::data[format=table title="Lakon vowels"]

	Front	Back	Near-close	Close-mid	Open-mid	Near-open	Open
∙	∙
∙	∙
∙	∙
∙
∙
::

Historically, the phonemicisation of vowel length originates in the compensatory lengthening of short vowels when the alveolar trill was lost syllable-finally. This is considered to be a very recent change, perhaps within the last century, as Codrington still indicates the trill syllable-finally. However, the 1897 Book of Common Prayer in Lakon shows loss of the trill, as evidenced by tataa "prayer" (spelled as tata) for Mota tataro.

Grammar

The system of personal pronouns in Lakon contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, plural).

Spatial reference in Lakon is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is typical of Oceanic languages.

References

Bibliography

{{citation |doi=10.1353/ol.2005.0034 |last=François |first=Alexandre |author-link = Alexandre François (linguist) |year=2005 |title=Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=443–504 |s2cid=131668754 |url=https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_VowelsNorthernVanuatu_OL44-2.pdf
{{citation |last=François |first=Alexandre |author-mask=2 |year=2011 |title=Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence |journal=Journal of Historical Linguistics |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=175–246 |doi=10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra |url=https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2011_JHL1-2_Social-ecology_Vanuatu.pdf |hdl=1885/29283 |s2cid=42217419 |hdl-access=free
{{citation |last=François |first=Alexandre |author-mask=2 |year=2012 |title=The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages |journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language |volume=2012 |issue=214 |doi=10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022 |pages=85–110 |s2cid=145208588 |url=https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2012_NorthVanuatuSocioling_IJSL.pdf
{{Cite book | publisher = Asia-Pacific Linguistics | isbn = 978-1-922185-23-5 | pages = 137–195 |editor=Alexandre François |editor2=Sébastien Lacrampe |editor3=Michael Franjieh |editor4=Stefan Schnell | last = François | first = Alexandre |author-mask=2 | title = The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity | chapter = The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages | location = Canberra | series = Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia | url = http://hdl.handle.net/1885/14819 | contribution-url= https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2015_North-Vanuatu-space-directionals.pdf | date = 2015 | hdl = 1885/14819 | ref = updown }}
{{citation |last=François |first=Alexandre |author-mask=2 |year=2016 |contribution = The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu |editor1-last = Pozdniakov |editor1-first = Konstantin |title = Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles |volume = 47 |pages = 25–60 |publisher = Peter Lang |place = Bern |series = Faits de Langues |contribution-url= https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2016_History-personal-pronouns_north-Vanuatu_s.pdf |ref=pronouns
{{cite web |url=https://pangloss.cnrs.fr/corpus/Lakon?lang=en&mode=pro&seeMore=true |title=Presentation of the Lakon language, and audio archive |last=François |first=Alexandre |author-mask=2 |author-link= |date=2022 |website=Pangloss Collection |location=Paris |publisher=CNRS |access-date=18 March 2023 |quote= |ref=pangloss}}

References

{{Harvcoltxt. François. 2012
[[#pangloss. François (2022)]].
{{Harvcoltxt. François. 2005. François. 2011
{{Harvcoltxt. François. 2005
[[#pronouns. François (2016)]].
[[#updown. François (2015)]].

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