// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Lehali language say? It's a tongue-twister.
| Lehali | |
|---|---|
| Loli | |
| Pronunciation | [lɔli] |
| Native to | Vanuatu |
| Region | Ureparapara |
Native speakers | 200 (2010)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | tql |
| Glottolog | leha1243 |
| ELP | Lehali |
 Lehali is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Lehali (previously known as Teqel) is an Oceanic language spoken by about 200 people, on the west coast of Ureparapara Island in Vanuatu.[1] It is distinct from Löyöp, the language spoken on the east coast of the same island.
Name
[edit]The language is named after the village where it is spoken, natively referred to as Loli [lɔli].
Phonology
[edit]Lehali phonemically contrasts 16 consonants and 10 vowels.[3]
Consonants
[edit]Vowels
[edit]The 10 vowel phonemes are all short monophthongs /i ɪ ɛ æ ə a ɒ̝ ɔ ʊ u/:[4][3]
Historical phonology
[edit]The ⟨y⟩ /j/ phoneme originates in a former trill *r: e.g. /-jɔ/ < POc *rua 'two'.[5] Lehali shares that particular sound change with its neighbors Löyöp, Volow, and Mwotlap.
Grammar
[edit]The system of personal pronouns in Lehali contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, plural).[6]
Most negative morphemes are discontinuous, wrapped around the predicate phrase: e.g. /tɛt nɛ … tæ/ (Negative realis ‘did/does not’), /tɛt … kʷɔ/ (Nondumitive ‘not yet’), /tɛt … vɪstæ/ (Negative potential ‘cannot’).[7] Historically, this pattern reflects an instance of Jespersen's cycle.[8]
Spatial reference in Lehali is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is in part typical of Oceanic languages, and yet innovative.[9]
References
[edit]- 1 2 List of Banks islands languages.
- ↑ A rough translation can be found in the comments to the Youtube version of this video.
- 1 2 François (2021).
- ↑ François 2011, p. 194.
- ↑ François 2016, pp. 31, 46.
- ↑ François 2016.
- ↑ François 2026, p. 127.
- ↑ François 2026, p. 115.
- ↑ François 2015, pp. 175–176.
Bibliography
[edit]- 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. S2CID 42217419.
- —— (2012). "The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF). International Journal of the Sociology of Language (214): 85–110. doi:10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022. S2CID 145208588.
- —— (2015). "The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages" (PDF). In François, Alexandre; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Franjieh, Michael; Schnell, Stefan (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.
- —— (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.
- —— (2021). "Presentation of the Lehali language and audio archive". Pangloss Collection. Paris: CNRS. Retrieved 21 Feb 2022.
- —— (2026). "Negation in Dorig" (PDF). In Miestamo, Matti; Veselinova, Ljuba (eds.). Negation in the World's Languages. Research on Comparative Grammar 9. Vol. 3. Berlin: Language Science Press. pp. 73–128. doi:10.5281/zenodo.18234067. ISBN 978-3-96110-554-0.
External links
[edit]- Audio recordings in the Lehali language, in open access, by A. François (Pangloss Collection).