Mwerlap is an Oceanic language spoken in the south of the Banks Islands

Banks Islands

The Banks Islands are a group of islands in northern Vanuatu.Together with the Torres Islands to the northwest, they make up the northernmost province of Torba. The group lies about north of Maewo, and includes Gaua and Vanua Lava, two of the 13 largest islands in Vanuatu...

 in Vanuatu

Vanuatu

Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...

. Its 900 speakers live mostly in Merelava

Merelava

Merelava is an island in the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu. It is situated in the southeastern part of the archipelago near Mota and Merig. The island is administratively part of Torba Province. Merelava has also been known as Star Island. It is located about 50 km east of Gaua.-Population and...

 and Merig

Merig

Merig is a small island located 20 km east of Gaua, in the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu.The island is about 800 meters wide, and has a circumference of 2.2 km....

, but a fair proportion have also settled the east coast of Gaua island

Gaua

Gaua is the largest of the Banks Islands in Torba Province of northern Vanuatu. It covers 342 km².- Physical geography :...

. Besides, a number of Mwerlap speakers live in the two cities of Vanuatu, Port Vila

Port Vila

Port Vila is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. Situated on the south coast of the island of Efate, in Shefa Province, the city population at last was 29,356, an increase of 55% on the previous census result . This suggests a 2007 population of about 40,000 or around 65% of the province's...

 and Luganville

Luganville

Luganville, called "Santo" by people from Vanuatu's northern islands who use Luganville as their big city, and called "Kanal" by rural residents of the large island of Espiritu Santo, is the second largest city in Vanuatu. The population is .Luganville is one of Vanuatu's busiest ports,...

.

Names

Mwerlap is the name of Merelava island in the language, phonetically [ŋʷɞrlap]. The language is sometimes referred to as Merelava or Merlav in the literature.

Phonology

Mwerlap has 12 phonemic

Phoneme

In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....

 vowels. These include 9 monophthong

Monophthong

A monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation....

s /i ɪ ɛ a ɞ ɵ ʉ ɔ ʊ/ and 3 diphthong

Diphthong

A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...

s /ɛ͡a ɔ͡ɞ ʊ͡ɵ/.

External links

• Bibliographic information on Merlav (Mwerlap)
• Na Buk Tatar, Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in the Merelava (Mwerlap) language