Vurës language

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Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu

title: "Vurës language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["banks–torres-languages", "languages-of-vanuatu"] description: "Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vurës_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	Vurës
altname	Vureas
pronunciation
states	Vanuatu
region	Vanua Lava
speakers
date	2016
ref	e25
familycolor	Austronesian
fam2	Malayo-Polynesian
fam3	Oceanic
fam4	Southern Oceanic
fam5	North-Central Vanuatu
fam6	North Vanuatu
fam7	Torres-Banks
iso3	msn
iso3comment	(shared with Mwesen)
glotto	vure1239
glottorefname	Vures
map	Lang Status 99-NE.svg
mapcaption
::

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 is named after the bay located in southwestern Vanua Lava in the language itself. In Mota, the bay is referred to as Vureas . Cognates in other Torres-Banks languages include Mwotlap Vuyes and Mwesen Vures . 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

::data[format=table] | Labial- velar | Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | Plosive | voiceless | prenasal | Nasal | Fricative | Liquid | rhotic | lateral | Semivowel | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | () | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::

is also heard as a tap in free variation.
A glottal stop only rarely occurs in some words.
is heard as before a voiceless stop.
is heard as when preceding another consonant.
Stop sounds are aspirated before vowels.

Vowels

Vurës has 9 phonemic vowels. These are all short monophthongs :

::data[format=table title="Vurës vowels"]

Front	Back	plain	round	Close	Close-mid	Open-mid	Open
		()



::

is only a marginal sound that occurs in a small amount of words, mostly borrowings.
The vowel inventory also includes a diphthong .

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.

References

Citations

Bibliography

{{Cite book | last = Malau | first = Catriona | title = A Dictionary of Vurës, Vanuatu | location = Canberra |series = Asia-Pacific Linguistics | edition = 1st | publisher = ANU Press | isbn = 978-1-76046-460-8 | access-date = 2021-07-10 | date = 2021 | url = https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/asia-pacific-linguistics/dictionary-vures-vanuatu}}
{{citation |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 |url=https://www.academia.edu/1330221 |doi=10.1353/ol.2005.0034 |s2cid=131668754 |citeseerx=10.1.1.395.4359
{{Citation | last = François | first = Alexandre | contribution = Noun articles in Torres and Banks languages: Conservation and innovation | editor1-last = Siegel | editor1-first = Jeff | editor2-last = Lynch | editor2-first = John | editor3-last = Eades | editor3-first = Diana | title = Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley | pages = 313–326 | publisher = Benjamins | place = Amsterdam | year = 2007 | series = Creole Language Library 30 | doi =10.1075/cll.30.30fra | contribution-url= https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2007_Articles-Vanuatu_Crowley-volume.pdf
{{Citation | last = François | first = Alexandre | contribution = Verbal aspect and personal pronouns: The history of aorist markers in north Vanuatu | editor1-last = Pawley | editor1-first = Andrew | editor2-last = Adelaar | editor2-first = Alexander | title = Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: A festschrift for Bob Blust | volume = 601 | pages = 179–195 | publisher = Pacific Linguistics | place = Canberra | year = 2009 | contribution-url= https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2009_Aorist-pronouns_Festschrift-Blust.pdf
{{citation |last=François |first=Alexandre |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 |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://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01137679/file/AlexFrancois_2012_NorthVanuatuSocioling_IJSL.pdf
{{citation |last=François |first=Alexandre |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_published.pdf
{{Citation | last1 = Kalyan | first1 = Siva | author1-link = | last2 = François | first2 = Alexandre | author2-link = | contribution = Freeing the Comparative Method from the tree model: A framework for Historical Glottometry | editor1-last = Kikusawa | editor1-first = Ritsuko | editor2-last = Reid | editor2-first = Laurie | title = Let's talk about trees: Tackling Problems in Representing Phylogenic Relationships among Languages | series= Senri Ethnological Studies, 98 | pages = 59–89 | publisher = National Museum of Ethnology | place = Ōsaka | year = 2018 | isbn = | contribution-url = https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/Kalyan-Francois_2018_Freeing-Comparative-Method-from-Tree-model.pdf | ref = KF18

References

[[#KF18. Kalyan & François 2018]].

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