Lakon language

Lakon
Lakon
Vure
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Gaua
Native speakers	800 (2012)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic Vanuatu Northern Vanuatu East Vanuatu Lakon; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lkn
Glottolog	lako1245
ELP	Lakon
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Lakon [lakɔn] is an Oceanic language, spoken on the west coast of Gaua island in Vanuatu.

Names

Lakon is named after the area where it is spoken, also known as Lakona Bay, which encompasses the west coast of Gaua. It is sometimes referred to as Lakona (after its name in Mota). Its former dialects include Qatareu (Qätärew), Vure (Vurē), Toglatareu, Togla.

Phonology

Lakon has 16 phonemic vowels. These include 8 short /i ɪ ɛ æ a ɔ ʊ u/ and 8 long vowels /iː ɪː ɛː æː aː ɔː ʊː uː/.^[2]

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

Historically, the phonemicisation of vowel length originates in the compensatory lengthening of short vowels when the alveolar trill /r/ was lost syllable-finally.^[3]

References

^ François (2012:88).
^ François (2005:445), François (2011:194).
^ François (2005:461).

Bibliography

François, Alexandre (2005), "Unraveling the history of vowels in seventeen north Vanuatu languages" (PDF), Oceanic Linguistics, 44 (2): 443–504, doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0034
François, Alexandre (2011), "Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence", Journal of Historical Linguistics, 1 (2): 175–246, doi:10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra.
François, Alexandre (2012), "The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages", International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 214: 85–110, doi:10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022.

External links

Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Lakon from Project Canterbury
A book of traditional stories, monolingual in Lakon language (site of linguist A. François)
Detailed list and map of the Banks and Torres languages, showing range of Lakon.

[1] François (2012:88).

[2] François (2005:445), François (2011:194).

[3] François (2005:461).

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[2]

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