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Koro language (Vanuatu)

Summary

Koro is an Oceanic language spoken on Gaua island in Vanuatu. Its 280 speakers live in the village of Koro, on the south coast of Gaua.[2]

Koro
Pronunciation[kʊrʊ]
Native toVanuatu
RegionGaua
Native speakers
250 (2012)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3krf
Glottologkoro1318
ELPKoro (Vanuatu)
Koro is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Koro is a distinct language from its immediate neighbours, Dorig (300 sp.) and Olrat (4 sp.).[3]

Name edit

The name Koro, spelled natively as Kōrō [kʊrʊ], is an endonym referring to the village.

Phonology edit

Koro has 8 phonemic vowels. These include 7 monophthongs /i ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ u/ and one diphthong /ɛ͡a/.[4]

  Front Back
Near-close i ⟨i⟩ u ⟨u⟩
Close-mid ɪ ⟨ē⟩ ʊ ⟨ō⟩
Open-mid ɛ ⟨e⟩ ɔ ⟨o⟩
Open a ⟨a⟩

The diphthong [ɛ͡a] is spelled as ⟨ä⟩.

Grammar edit

The system of personal pronouns in Koro contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, plural).[5]

Spatial reference in Koro is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is typical of Oceanic languages.[6]

Notes and references edit

References edit

  1. ^ François (2012): 88).
  2. ^ François (2005:444).
  3. ^ List of Banks islands languages.
  4. ^ François (2005:445).
  5. ^ François (2016).
  6. ^ François (2015).

Bibliography edit

  • François, Alexandre (2005), "Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF), Oceanic Linguistics, 44 (2): 443–504, doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0034, S2CID 131668754
  • François, Alexandre (2011), "Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence" (PDF), Journal of Historical Linguistics, 1 (2): 175–246, doi:10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra, hdl:1885/29283.
  • François, Alexandre (2012), "The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF), International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2012 (214): 85–110, doi:10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022, S2CID 145208588
  • François, Alexandre (2015). "The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages" (PDF). In Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell (eds.). The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. pp. 137–195. hdl:1885/14819. ISBN 978-1-922185-23-5.
  • François, Alexandre (2016), "The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu" (PDF), in Pozdniakov, Konstantin (ed.), Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles, Faits de Langues, vol. 47, Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 25–60
  • François, Alexandre (2021). "In Love with an Eel Man". Pangloss Collection. Paris: CNRS. Retrieved 22 Feb 2022.

External links edit

  • Linguistic map of north Vanuatu, showing range of Koro on Gaua.
  • Audio recordings in the Koro language, in open access, by A. François (Pangloss Collection).