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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.[2]

Vurës
Vureas
Pronunciation	[βyrœs]
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Vanua Lava
Native speakers	2,000 (2012)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic Vanuatu North Vanuatu Torres–Banks Vurës
Language codes
ISO 639-3	msn (shared with Mwesen)
Glottolog	vure1239
ELP	Vurës

Vurës was described by linguist Catriona Malau, in the form of a grammar[2] and a dictionary.[3]

Name

The name Vurës [βyrœs] is named after the bay located in southwestern Vanua Lava in the language itself. In Mota, the bay is referred to as Vureas [βureas]. These come from a reconstructed Proto-Torres-Banks form *βureas(i,u).

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.[4]

However, studies have shown that Mwesen and Vurës have various dissimilarities, e.g. in their vowel systems,[5] in their noun articles,[6] in their pronoun paradigms[7][8] — enough to be considered clearly distinct.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial- velar	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	k͡pʷ ⟨q⟩		t̪ ⟨t⟩		k ⟨k⟩	(ʔ)
	prenasal		ᵐb ⟨b⟩	ⁿd̪ ⟨d⟩
Nasal		ŋ͡mʷ ⟨m̄⟩	m ⟨m⟩		n ⟨n⟩	ŋ ⟨n̄⟩
Fricative			β ⟨v⟩		s ⟨s⟩	ɣ ⟨g⟩
Liquid	rhotic				r ⟨r⟩
	lateral				l ⟨l⟩
Semivowel		w ⟨w⟩

• /r/ is also heard as a tap [ɾ] in free variation.
• A glottal stop /ʔ/ only rarely occurs in some words.
• /β/ is heard as [p̚] before a voiceless stop.
• /k͡pʷ/ is heard as [k͡p] when preceding another consonant.
• Stop sounds /t̪ k/ are aspirated [t̪ʰ kʰ] before vowels.[9]

Vowels

Vurës has 9 phonemic vowels. These are all short monophthongs /i e ɛ a œ ø y ɔ o/:[10][11]

Vurës vowels

	Front		Back
	plain	round
Close	i ⟨i⟩	y ⟨u⟩	(ʊ) ⟨u⟩
Close-mid	e ⟨ē⟩	ø ⟨ö⟩	o ⟨ō⟩
Open-mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩	œ ⟨ë⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩
Open	a ⟨a⟩

• [ʊ] is only a marginal sound that occurs in a small amount of words, mostly borrowings.[9]
• The vowel inventory also includes a diphthong [i​͡a] ⟨ia⟩.[12]

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

• Vurës—English dictionary, by Catriona Malau.
• Audio recordings in the Vurës language, in open access, by A. François (Pangloss Collection, CNRS).

На других языках

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- [en] Vurës language

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[fr] Vurës

Le vurës [βyˈrœs] est une langue parlée par 2 000 personnes au nord du Vanuatu dans le sud-est de l’île Vanua Lava, située dans l’archipel des îles Banks[1].

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