Alexandre Francois - A linguist in Melanesia

I have collected firsthand data on several languages of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, which were little documented until recently. All these languages are Austronesian, more precisely Oceanic.

For each language, the tables below indicate its geographical location; the name which I use and recommend – based on the speakers’ preferences – as well as alternate names under which it has been called in earlier publications. I propose an estimate of their current number of speakers. Finally, I give relevant links to further information, and to online texts with their translation. The last column links to all my audio archives from the field.

I am currently working on the systematic description of some of these languages. Part of this research has already been published.

Languages of Vanuatu

See a map of the 17 northern Vanuatu languages

The numbers of speakers proposed below were revised in October 2010. I recalculated the figures by extrapolating them from the recently published demographic figures given, island by island, by the 2009 Vanuatu census [link to VNSO’s site; direct link ]. The 2009 total population of Torres & Banks islands ("TorBa" province) was 9359 individuals. This shows a demographic increase of 20.7 percent from the last 1999 census, which had a figure of 7757.

Note: This chart cites only those languages of Vanuatu on which I have personally collected data on the field. For a full list of the 110 languages spoken in Vanuatu, see the Ethnologue’s page.

Geographical area	Island	Language name	Abbr. I use	Alternate names	ISO code	Nb speakers	Info links	Text links	Audio archives
*Torres Is.*	Hiw	Hiw	HIW	Hiu	hiw	280	1		1 · 2
	Lo, Toga	Lo-Toga	LTG	Loh, Toga	lht	580	1		1 · 2
*Banks Is.*	Ureparapara	Lehali	LHI	Teqel	tql	200	1		1 · 2
		Löyöp	LYP	Lehalurup	urr	240	1		1 · 2
	Motalava	Mwotlap	MTP	Motlav	mlv	2100	1 · 2 · 3	1 · 2 · 3	1 · 2
		Volow	VLW	Valuwa	mlv	1	1
	Vanua Lava	Lemerig	LMG	Sasar	lrz	2	1		1 · 2
		Vera’a	VRA	Vatrata	vlr	500	1 · 2		1
		Vurës	VRS	Vureas, Mosina	msn	2000	1 · 2 · 3		1 · 2
		Mwesen	MSN	Mosina	msn	10	1	1 · 2	1
	Mota	Mota	MTA		mtt	750	1	1	1
	Gaua	Nume	NUM	Tarasag	tgs	700	1		1 · 2
		Dorig	DRG	Wetamut	wwo	300	1	1	1 · 2
		Koro	KRO		krf	250	1		1 · 2
		Olrat	OLR		olr	3	1		1 · 2
		Lakon	LKN	Lakona, Vure	lkn	800	1 · 2		1 · 2
	Merelava	Mwerlap	MRL	Merlav	mrm	1100	1		1 · 2
South Santo	Araki	Araki	ARK		akr	8	1 · 2 · 3 · 4	1 · 2	1 · 2

Languages of the Solomon Islands

I have revised the figures for numbers of speakers based on my May 2012 survey, and also taking into account the 2009 Solomon Islands census.

Note: This chart cites only those languages of the Solomon Islands on which I have personally collected data on the field. For a full list of the 74 languages spoken in the Solomons, see the Ethnologue’s page.

Geographical area	Island	Language name	Abbr. I use	Alternate names	ISO code	Nb speakers	Info links	Audio archives
Temotu	Vanikoro	Teanu	TEA	Puma, Buma	tkw	800	1	1 · 2
		Lovono	LVN	Vano, Lavana, Vanikolo	vnk	4	1	1 · 2
		Tanema	TNM	Tetawo	tnx	1	1	1 · 2
		Tikopia	TKP	Fakatikopia	tkp	1800	1	1 · 2