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Neverver language
Neverver (Nevwervwer), also known as Lingarak, is an Oceanic language. Neverver is spoken in Malampa Province, in central Malekula, Vanuatu. The names of the villages on Malekula Island where Neverver is spoken are Lingarakh and Limap.
Neverver is a threatened language, and native languages are protected and secured by the local government that is in charge. Sixty percent of the children are able to speak this language. However, the dominant languages in the community, such as Bislama, English, and French are pushed to be used within these language communities. Bislama is the most widely used language within this region. English and French are the two most distinguished languages within this region because they are connected with the schooling system. In the Malampa Province, English and French are the primary languages taught for education. English is used for business transactions within this region and helps generate revenue within the region. This is due to the fact that before this province gained its independence in 1980 they were governed by the joint French-English colonial rule. Overall, there are only 550 native speakers of Neverver.
Neverver falls under the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family (based on comparison of cognates, morphology, phonology and other evidence markers), which is the second largest language family in the world. There are two dialects of the Neverver language; Mindu and Wuli.
Neverver contains a total of 27 consonant phonemes in five distinct places of articulation and six distinct manners of articulation. A notable feature of Neverver is that some voiced consonants appear only in its prenasalized form. Another feature of Neverver's consonants is that some have a contrastive geminate counterpart: /pː/, /tː/, /kː/, /mː/, /nː/, /lː/, /rː/, and /sː/. The consonant phonemes are given in the table below using the International Phonemic Alphabet (IPA).
Voiced obstruents, including the fricatives /β/ and /ɣ/, and the prenasalized trills /mbʙ/ and /ndr/ are devoiced in word-final position in rapid speech. Among younger speakers, the prenasalized plosives become simple nasals in word-final position.
The plosive /p/ becomes a voiceless trill [ʙ̥] before the vowel /u/.
Neverver contains a total of eight vowel phonemes, five regular vowels and three diphthongs. However, there is evidence that /y/ and /ø/ are contrastive among older speakers, bringing the total number of vowels to ten for some speakers. The vowel phonemes are given in the table on the left IPA. A list of diphthongs are also provided in the table on the right along with examples.
Neverver allows for syllables with up to one consonant in the onset and in the coda, including syllables with only a nucleus. This means the structure of syllables is (C)V(C). An example of the possible syllable structures is given in the table below where the corresponding syllables are in bold:
Hub AI
Neverver language AI simulator
(@Neverver language_simulator)
Neverver language
Neverver (Nevwervwer), also known as Lingarak, is an Oceanic language. Neverver is spoken in Malampa Province, in central Malekula, Vanuatu. The names of the villages on Malekula Island where Neverver is spoken are Lingarakh and Limap.
Neverver is a threatened language, and native languages are protected and secured by the local government that is in charge. Sixty percent of the children are able to speak this language. However, the dominant languages in the community, such as Bislama, English, and French are pushed to be used within these language communities. Bislama is the most widely used language within this region. English and French are the two most distinguished languages within this region because they are connected with the schooling system. In the Malampa Province, English and French are the primary languages taught for education. English is used for business transactions within this region and helps generate revenue within the region. This is due to the fact that before this province gained its independence in 1980 they were governed by the joint French-English colonial rule. Overall, there are only 550 native speakers of Neverver.
Neverver falls under the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family (based on comparison of cognates, morphology, phonology and other evidence markers), which is the second largest language family in the world. There are two dialects of the Neverver language; Mindu and Wuli.
Neverver contains a total of 27 consonant phonemes in five distinct places of articulation and six distinct manners of articulation. A notable feature of Neverver is that some voiced consonants appear only in its prenasalized form. Another feature of Neverver's consonants is that some have a contrastive geminate counterpart: /pː/, /tː/, /kː/, /mː/, /nː/, /lː/, /rː/, and /sː/. The consonant phonemes are given in the table below using the International Phonemic Alphabet (IPA).
Voiced obstruents, including the fricatives /β/ and /ɣ/, and the prenasalized trills /mbʙ/ and /ndr/ are devoiced in word-final position in rapid speech. Among younger speakers, the prenasalized plosives become simple nasals in word-final position.
The plosive /p/ becomes a voiceless trill [ʙ̥] before the vowel /u/.
Neverver contains a total of eight vowel phonemes, five regular vowels and three diphthongs. However, there is evidence that /y/ and /ø/ are contrastive among older speakers, bringing the total number of vowels to ten for some speakers. The vowel phonemes are given in the table on the left IPA. A list of diphthongs are also provided in the table on the right along with examples.
Neverver allows for syllables with up to one consonant in the onset and in the coda, including syllables with only a nucleus. This means the structure of syllables is (C)V(C). An example of the possible syllable structures is given in the table below where the corresponding syllables are in bold: