Araki language
| Araki | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Vanuatu |
| Region | Araki Island, Espiritu Santo |
|
Native speakers
|
8 (2012) |
|
Austronesian
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | arak1252 |
Araki is a nearly extinct language spoken in the small island of Araki (locally known as [ˈɾaki]), south of Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu. Araki is gradually being replaced by Tangoa, a language from a neighbouring island.
Araki is spoken today by about 8 native speakers; it is progressively being replaced by the neighbouring language of Tangoa. The rest of the island's population have a passive knowledge of Araki language, which allows them to understand it, and even make whole phrases and sentences. Nevertheless, a large portion of the Araki vocabulary, as well as idiosyncratic syntactic and phonetic phenomena of the language have been forgotten. Speakers of Araki can also speak the English-based pidgin Bislama; but this lingua franca is mainly used in the two towns of the country, Port-Vila and Luganville, and seldom in rural areas.
Araki was described in 2002 by the linguist Alexandre François.
Araki belongs to the Oceanic branch of Austronesian languages; more precisely, to the group ‘North and Central Vanuatu languages’.
Araki has a phonological inventory of 16 consonant phonemes and 5 vowels, which are shown in the following two tables:
Araki has 16 consonants which generally appear at the beginning of a syllable, with some exceptions.
Only fluent speakers of Araki distinguish between the flap [ɾ] and the trill [r]; and only they can distinguish and pronounce the linguolabial consonants. 'Passive' users of the language replace these consonants either with bilabial consonants or alveolar consonants. Although many younger people claim to be able to speak Araki, they are usually passive users of the language, and therefore do not use linguolabial consonants.
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