Northeast Malakula, or Uripiv-Wala-Rano-Atchin, is a dialect chain spoken on the islands of Uripiv, Wala, Rano, and Atchin and on the mainland opposite to these islands. Uripiv-Wala-Rano-Atchin is spoken today by about 9,000 people. Literacy rate of its speakers in their own language is 10–30%.
Uripiv-Wala-Rano-Atchin forms a dialect chain. The Uripiv dialect is the most southerly of these and has 85% of its words in common with Atchin, the most northerly dialect. Uripiv is spoken on the north-east coast of Malakula.
The Uripiv dialect is one of the few documented languages that use the rare bilabial trill, a feature that is not found in the Atchin dialect.
Phonology
Consonants +Uripiv consonantsLabialAlveolarPalatalVelarplainlab.Plosive/AffricatevoicelessprenasalFricativeNasalTapTrillvoicedprenasal()LateralApproximant
The sound is considered rare, and its phonemic status is unclear.
+Atchin consonantsLabialAlveolarVelarplainlab.PlosivevoicelessprenasalAffricateFricativeNasalTrillLateralApproximant
Some speakers may pronounce sounds /s, ts/ as [ʃ, tʃ] in free variation.
Vowels {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |+ Uripiv vowels ! ! colspan="2" | Front !Central ! Back |- !Close | colspan="2" |
!Mid
!Open | colspan="2" |
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |+ Atchin vowels ! ! Front !Central ! Back |- !Close
!Close-mid
!Open-mid
!Open
Sounds /e, o, œ/ are heard as [ɛ, ɔ, ə] in unstressed closed-syllable position.
References
Further reading Duhamel, Marie (2015) Ethnolinguistic vitality of the language of Atchin, central Vanuatu: A survey of the language's status, institutional support and demography. Fourth International Workshop on the Sociolinguistics of Language Endangerment. Payap University.