The nine South Vanuatu languages form a family of the Southern Oceanic languages, spoken in Tafea Province (Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango, and Aniwa) of Vanuatu.
Languages Erromango family Southern: Sie, Sorung† Northern: Ifo (Utaha)†, Ura(more information here) Tanna family Southern: Kwamera (South Tanna), Southwest Tanna Northern: Lenakel (West Tanna), Whitesands (Weasisi, East Tanna), North Tanna Aneityum Aneityum (Anejom̃)
François et al. (2015) François et al. (2015:18–21) lists the following names and locations for the 9 South Vanuatu languages.
No. Language Other names Speakers ISO 639-3 Region 128 Sie Se, Erromanga 1900 erg Erromango 129 Ura 6 uur Erromango 130 Utaha 0 iff Erromango 131 North Tanna 5000 tnn Tanna 132 Lenakel Netvaar 11500 tnl Tanna 133 Southwest Tanna Nawal 5000 nwi Tanna 134 Whitesands Narak 7500 tnp Tanna 135 Kwamera Nafe, Nɨfe 3500 tnk Tanna 137 Anejom̃ Aneityum 900 aty Aneityum
Proto-South Vanuatu
Proto-South Vanuatu was reconstructed by John Lynch in 2001.
The language, compared to Proto-Oceanic, went through a series of vowel reductions, leading to the creation of a new vowel written as *ə, such as in *na-waiR "fresh water" resulting in Proto-South Vanuatu *nə-wai of the same meaning.
However, it also preserves some, but not all final consonants. For example, *tanum "to plant, bury" is reflected in Proto-South Vanuatu as *(a)-tenum "to bury", but *taŋis "to cry" is instead reflected as *(a)-taŋi.
Vowels The vowels of Proto-South Vanuatu, according to Lynch, are: + VowelsFrontCentralBack Close Close-mid Open
Consonants The consonants of Proto-South Vanuatu, according to Lynch, are: {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |+Consonants ! colspan="2" | !Labiovelar !Bilabial !Alveolar !Palatal !Velar !Uvular |- ! rowspan="2" |Stop !voiced
!voiceless
! colspan="2" |Nasal
! colspan="2" |Fricative
|*, *
! colspan="2" |Approximant
|*, *
References
. Lynch, John. 2001. The linguistic history of southern Vanuatu. (Pacific Linguistics, 509.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.