Big Nambas language

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Big Nambas V'ənen Taut
Pronunciation:	IPA: [ˈθ̼ənɛn tautʰ]
Spoken in:	Northwest Malekula, Vanuatu
Total speakers:	1,800 (as of 1983)
Language family:	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central-Eastern Eastern Oceanic Central-Eastern Remote North and Central Vanuatu Malekula Interior Malekula Central Big Nambas
Writing system:	Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`map`
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	`nmb`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Big Nambas (native name V'ənen Taut [ˈθ̼ənɛn tautʰ]) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by about 1,800 people (as of 1983) in northwest Malekula, Vanuatu. Approximately nineteen villages in the Big Nambas region of the Malekula Interior use the language exclusively with no variation in dialect. It was studied in-depth over a period of about 10 years by missionary G. J. Fox, who published a grammar and dictionary in 1979.

1 Phonology
2 Grammar
3 Example Texts and Phrases
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Phonology

The consonant phonemes of Big Nambas are as shown in the following table:

	Linguolabial	Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar
Voiceless Stop	t̼	p	t	k
Voiced Stop			ⁿd
Fricative	ð̼	β	s	ɣ
Nasal	n̼	m	n
Lateral			l
Trill			r

Big Nambas has a 5-vowel system comprised of the following phonemes:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u uː
Middle	e	ə
Low		a aː

Big Nambas has a complex syllable structure with a large amount of consonant clusters possible. Additionally, clusters of up to four vowels are permitted. Stress in Big Nambas is phonemic, but partly predictable. The consonants /t β r l n/ all exhibit phonemic gemination when two identical ones occur between syllables. Linguolabial consonants are often marked with an apostrophe in the orthography to distinguish them from their bilabial counterparts.