Lovono language

Lovono
Alavana
Native to Solomon Islands
Region Vanikoro
Native speakers
 4 (2012)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 vnk
Glottolog vano1237[2]

Lovono (Vano, Alavano, Alavana) is a nearly extinct language of the island of Vanikoro in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands. As of 2012, it is only spoken by four speakers;[1] it has been replaced by the island’s dominant language, Teanu.

Some information on Lovono, as well as on the other languages of the island, can be found in François (2009).

Name

The language name makes reference to an ancient village in the northwest of the island Banie.[3] In the language Lovono, which was once the dominant one in that area, the village was called Alavana. In Teanu, which is now the only language spoken by the modern population, the same village is called Lovono. This language shift is reflected in the people’s preference to use the Teanu form (i.e. Lovono) both for the village name and for the ancient language that used to be associated with it.

The same village – and hence the language – has been also spelled Whanou or Vano in the scientific literature, possibly reflecting an older pronunciation of the word.

Notes

  1. 1 2 Homepage of the linguist A. François (LACITO-CNRS).
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Vano". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ François (2009).

References

  • François, Alexandre (2009), "The languages of Vanikoro: Three lexicons and one grammar", in Evans, Bethwyn, Discovering history through language: Papers in honour of Malcolm Ross, Pacific Linguistics 605, Canberra: Australian National University, pp. 103–126


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