Olrat language

Not to be confused with OLRAT.
Olrat
Native to Vanuatu
Region Gaua
Native speakers
 3 (2012)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 olr
Glottolog None

Olrat is a moribund Oceanic language spoken on Gaua island in Vanuatu.

The three remaining speakers of Olrat live on the middle-west coast of Gaua.[2] They merged into the larger village of Jōlap where Lakon is dominant, after they left their inland hamlet of Olrat in the first half of the 20th century.[1]

Alexandre François identifies Olrat as a distinct language from its immediate neighbor Lakon, on phonological,[3] grammatical,[4] and lexical[5] grounds.

Phonology

Olrat has 14 phonemic vowels. These include 7 short /i ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ u/ and 7 long vowels /iː ɪː ɛː aː ɔː ʊː uː/.[6]

Olrat vowels
  Front Central Back
Near-close i ∙ iː   u ∙ uː
Close-mid ɪ ∙ ɪː   ʊ ∙ ʊː
Open-mid ɛ ∙ ɛː   ɔ ∙ ɔː
Open   a ∙ aː  

Historically, the phonologization of vowel length originates in the compensatory lengthening of short vowels when the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ was lost syllable-finally.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 François (2012).
  2. ↑ List of Banks islands languages.
  3. ↑ François (2005)
  4. ↑ François (2007)
  5. ↑ François (2011)
  6. ↑ François (2005:445), François (2011:194).
  7. ↑ François (2005:461).

Bibliography


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