Mwerlap language

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Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu

title: "Mwerlap 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"] description: "Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mwerlap_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	Mwerlap
altname	Merelava, Merlav
nativename	N̄wërlap
pronunciation
states	Vanuatu
region	Merelava, Gaua
speakers	ca. 1,100
date	2012
ref
familycolor	Austronesian
fam2	Malayo-Polynesian
fam3	Oceanic
fam4	Southern Oceanic
fam5	North-Central Vanuatu
fam6	North Vanuatu
fam7	Torres-Banks
iso3	mrm
glotto	merl1237
glottorefname	Merlav
notice	IPA
map	Lang Status 99-NE.svg
mapcaption
::

Mwerlap is an Oceanic language spoken in the south of the Banks Islands in Vanuatu.

Its 1,100 speakers live mostly in Merelava and Merig, but a fair proportion have also settled on the east coast of Gaua island. Besides, a number of Mwerlap speakers live in the two cities of Vanuatu, Port Vila and Luganville.

The language has been studied by Alexandre François, and more recently by Agnès Henri.

Name

The language is named after Mwerlap, the native name of Merelava island.

Phonology

Consonants

Mwerlap has 16 phonemic consonants.

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

Labiovelar	Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Plosive	voiceless	prenasal	Nasal	Fricative	Rhotic	Lateral	Approximant



	~



::

/v/ is also heard as [β] when geminated in syllable-initial position.

/s/ may also be heard as alveolo-palatal [ɕ] when in geminated positions.

Vowels

Mwerlap has 12 phonemic vowels. These include 9 monophthongs , and 3 diphthongs .

::data[format=table title="Mwerlap vowels"] | | | |Front | |Central rounded | |Back | |Diphthongs | Close | Near-close | Open-mid | Open | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | () | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::

/ʉ/ may also be heard as back [u] among speakers.

Grammar

The system of personal pronouns in Mwerlap contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes three numbers (singular, dual, plural).

::data[format=table title="Independent pronouns in Mwerlap{{sfn|François|2016|p=33-35}}"]

Singular	Dual	Plural
no ~ në ~	dōrō	gean
kamar	kemem
neak	kamrō	kemi
(ki)sean	karar	kear
::

Spatial reference in Mwerlap is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals. That system is partly typical of Oceanic languages, and yet innovative.

References

Bibliography

{{cite journal |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
{{cite journal |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 |ref=ecology |hdl=1885/29283 |hdl-access=free
{{cite journal |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 |editor1= 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 = https://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
{{cite book |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

References

{{Harvtxt. Henri. 2023
{{Harvtxt. Henri. 2023

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