Lenakel language
| Lenakel | |
|---|---|
| West Tanna | |
| Native to | Vanuatu |
| Region | Tanna Island |
|
Native speakers
|
12,000 (2001) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | lena1238 |
Lenakel, or West Tanna, is a dialect chain spoken on the western coast of Tanna Island in Vanuatu.
Lenakel is one of five languages spoken on Tanna. The native name for the language is Netvaar, and speakers refer to their language as Nakaraan taha Lenakel "the language of Lenakel". Lenakel has been extensively researched and documented by John Lynch, and both a dictionary and a detailed linguistic description of the language have been published.
Lenakel is an Austronesian language of southern Vanuatu. Its closest relatives are the other four Tanna languages spoken on the island of Tanna. It is particularly closely related to the Whitesands language and North Tanna, the two languages closest in geographic space to the Lenakel language area. Although none of the languages of Tanna are strictly mutually intelligible, there is a high degree of lexical overlap, and the grammars of Lenakel, Whitesands, and North Tanna are nearly identical. Based on Swadesh list data, Lenakel was found to be 73-80% lexically identical to North Tanna and 75-81% lexically identical to Whitesands. Linguist D.T. Tryon has referred to the linguistic situation in Vanuatu as one of "language-chaining," a reference to Dialect continuum, the idea within linguistics that dialects exist along a continuum or chain within a language area.
Lenakel is spoken on Tanna, an island in the southern part of the 82-island chain comprising Vanuatu. It is spoken by between 8,500 and 11,500 people and is concentrated in the central west part of the island.Isangel, the administrative capitol of Tafea Province, exists within the Lenakel language area, as does Lenakel, the largest city on the island of Tanna. There are significant Lenakel-speaking communities in other areas of Vanuatu, such as New Caledonia and Port Vila on the island of Efate.
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