Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Avava language
Avava (Navava), also known as Katbol, Tembimbe-Katbol, or Bangsa’ is an Oceanic language of central Malekula, Vanuatu. It has nasalized fricatives and a bilabial trill.
The four Avava-speaking villages speak or spoke, distinct dialects. Timbembe and Nevaar (Nɨviar) are still spoken. The Nivat (Nevat) and Bangasa (Umbrul) dialects are extinct. Bangasa/Bangsa', or more correctly Bangasak, was known as Numbuwul by its neighbors to the north; the endonym is Umbbuul [(u)ᵐʙuːl].
The alternate names for Avava are Bangsa’, Katbol, Mallicolo, Navava, Taremp, Tembimbe-Katbol and Tisvel.
When the final syllable is light (CV), stress tends to be penultimate. When the final syllable is heavy (CVC, CVV, CVː), stress tends to be final.
There are a total of eight vowel quantities in Avava: five short vowels and three long vowels. The five short Avava vowel qualities, /a e i o u/. /u/ is pronounced [ʉ] between a bilabial trill and an alveolar and, in final syllables, between a bilabial trill and /k/. About 2% of vowels are long. Long /eː/ is not attested, and long /oː/ is marginal. This is a pattern shared with Naman. At the end of a prosodic unit – in citation form, utterance-finally and when speaking slowly – word-final vowels other than /i/ tend to be replaced with "diphthongs" /Vi/. Word-initial vowels present in citation form tend to be lost when the word is linked to others, e.g. when the subject of a verb or possessed by a pronoun. This is the reason for the alternative form of the name of the language, vava.
A notable variant of the same phoneme shown with short vowels is when /u/ undergoes centralisation to [ʉ] in two different settings: in closed syllables between a bilabial trill and a following alveolar consonant, and in non-final syllables between a bilabial trill and alveolar consonant[clarification needed].
The three long vowels in Avava are /i:/, /u:/, and /a:/. Though there is evidence for the long /o:/, the vowel is only shown in three words throughout the entire lexicon of Avava.
/s/ is post-alveolar. The voiceless stops are lightly aspirated. Otherwise, the consonants have the values their IPA transcriptions suggest.
Hub AI
Avava language AI simulator
(@Avava language_simulator)
Avava language
Avava (Navava), also known as Katbol, Tembimbe-Katbol, or Bangsa’ is an Oceanic language of central Malekula, Vanuatu. It has nasalized fricatives and a bilabial trill.
The four Avava-speaking villages speak or spoke, distinct dialects. Timbembe and Nevaar (Nɨviar) are still spoken. The Nivat (Nevat) and Bangasa (Umbrul) dialects are extinct. Bangasa/Bangsa', or more correctly Bangasak, was known as Numbuwul by its neighbors to the north; the endonym is Umbbuul [(u)ᵐʙuːl].
The alternate names for Avava are Bangsa’, Katbol, Mallicolo, Navava, Taremp, Tembimbe-Katbol and Tisvel.
When the final syllable is light (CV), stress tends to be penultimate. When the final syllable is heavy (CVC, CVV, CVː), stress tends to be final.
There are a total of eight vowel quantities in Avava: five short vowels and three long vowels. The five short Avava vowel qualities, /a e i o u/. /u/ is pronounced [ʉ] between a bilabial trill and an alveolar and, in final syllables, between a bilabial trill and /k/. About 2% of vowels are long. Long /eː/ is not attested, and long /oː/ is marginal. This is a pattern shared with Naman. At the end of a prosodic unit – in citation form, utterance-finally and when speaking slowly – word-final vowels other than /i/ tend to be replaced with "diphthongs" /Vi/. Word-initial vowels present in citation form tend to be lost when the word is linked to others, e.g. when the subject of a verb or possessed by a pronoun. This is the reason for the alternative form of the name of the language, vava.
A notable variant of the same phoneme shown with short vowels is when /u/ undergoes centralisation to [ʉ] in two different settings: in closed syllables between a bilabial trill and a following alveolar consonant, and in non-final syllables between a bilabial trill and alveolar consonant[clarification needed].
The three long vowels in Avava are /i:/, /u:/, and /a:/. Though there is evidence for the long /o:/, the vowel is only shown in three words throughout the entire lexicon of Avava.
/s/ is post-alveolar. The voiceless stops are lightly aspirated. Otherwise, the consonants have the values their IPA transcriptions suggest.