Lemerig language

{{Unsourced|section|date=February 2025}}

The name Lemerig refers to a now abandoned village in northern Vanua Lava; it is spelled {{lang|lrz|Lēmērig}} {{IPA|lrz|lɪmɪˈriɣ|}} in the language of the same name. It reflects an earlier Proto-Torres-Banks form *lemeriɣi, where the *riɣi component likely means "small".

Lemerig has sometimes been referred to using the names of its local varieties: Päk;Päk {{IPA|lrz|pæk|}} is a village on the north coast of Vanua Lava island, today often referred to using its Mwotlap name Abek {{IPA|mlv|aᵐbɛk|}}. Due to its vowel {{IPA|[æ]}} (potentially ambiguous to Western ears), the original name in Lemerig was spelled Pak in Codrington 1885 ([https://archive.org/details/melanesianlangua00codruoft/page/39/mode/2up?view=theater pp.39 sqq]), but Pek in Codrington 1891 ([https://archive.org/details/melanesiansstudi00codruoft/page/81/mode/1up?q=Pek p.81]). Sasar; Alo-Teqel.

Judging from wordlists published by missionary and linguist Robert Codrington,See Codrington 1885, [https://archive.org/details/melanesianlangua00codruoft/page/39/mode/1up pp.39-52 sqq.]. these three varieties were very close to each other. The little differences there were went extinct during the 20th century.

Lemerig has 11 phonemic vowels. These are all short monophthongs {{IPA|/i ɪ ɛ æ a œ ø ɒ̝ ɔ ʊ u/}}.{{sfn|François|2011|p=194}}See François 2021.

The system of personal pronouns in Lemerig contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, and plural).{{sfn|François|2016}}

Spatial reference in Lemerig is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is in part typical of Oceanic languages, in part innovative.{{sfn|François|2015|pp=169–170}}

{{reflist|2|}}

• {{cite book

|last=Codrington

|first=Robert Henry

|author-link=Robert Henry Codrington

|year=1885

|title = The Melanesian Languages

|volume = 47

|pages = 25–60

|publisher = Clarendon Press

|place = Oxford

|url= https://archive.org/details/melanesianlangua00codruoft

|ref=RHC

}}

• {{cite book|last1=Codrington|first1=Robert Henry|title=The Melanesians: Studies in Their Anthropology and Folk-lore|date=1891|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=New York|isbn=9780486202587|page=|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Melanesians:_Studies_in_their_Anthropology_and_Folklore|language=en

|ref=RHC_tM}}

• {{cite journal

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|author-link = Alexandre François (linguist)

|year=2011

|title=Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence

|journal=Journal of Historical Linguistics

|volume=1

|issue=2

|pages=175–246

|doi=10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra

|url=https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2011_JHL1-2_Social-ecology_Vanuatu.pdf

|hdl=1885/29283

|s2cid=42217419

|hdl-access=free

}}.

• {{cite journal

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|author-mask=2

|year=2012

|title=The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages

|journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language

|volume=2012

|issue=214

|doi=10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022

|pages=85–110

|s2cid=145208588

|url=https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2012_NorthVanuatuSocioling_IJSL.pdf

}}

• {{Cite book

| publisher = Asia-Pacific Linguistics

| isbn = 978-1-922185-23-5

| pages = 137–195

|editor=Alexandre François |editor2=Sébastien Lacrampe |editor3=Michael Franjieh |editor4=Stefan Schnell

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

|author-mask=2

| title = The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity

| chapter = The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages

| location = Canberra

| series = Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia

| contribution-url = https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2015_North-Vanuatu-space-directionals.pdf

| date = 2015

}}

• {{cite book

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|author-mask=2

|year=2016

|contribution = The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu

|editor1-last = Pozdniakov

|editor1-first = Konstantin

|title = Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles

|volume = 47

|pages = 25–60

|publisher = Peter Lang

|place = Bern

|series = Faits de Langues

|contribution-url= https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2016_History-personal-pronouns_north-Vanuatu.pdf

}}.

• {{cite web

|url=https://pangloss.cnrs.fr/corpus/Lemerig?lang=en&mode=pro&seeMore=true

|title=Presentation of the Lemerig language and audio archive

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

| author-mask=2

|date=2021

|website=Pangloss Collection

|location=Paris

|publisher=CNRS

|access-date=19 Nov 2023

|quote=

|ref=pangloss}}

• François, Alexandre & Taitus Sërortēlsöm (2006). [https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_Storian-Lemerig_2006.pdf Nvāv {{okina}}ām {{okina}}a Lēmērig — Storian long lanwis blong Lemerig (Vanua Lava, Banks, Vanuatu)]. Collection of stories from the oral tradition, monolingual in Lemerig. Paris.

• [https://pangloss.cnrs.fr/corpus/Lemerig?lang=en&mode=pro Audio recordings in the Lemerig language], in open access, by linguist A. François (Pangloss Collection). Features a presentation of the language, and pictures of some of the last speakers.

{{Languages of Vanuatu}}

{{Southern Oceanic languages}}

{{Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemerig language}}

Category:Languages of Vanuatu

Category:Banks–Torres languages

Category:Torba Province

Category:Endangered Austronesian languages

Category:Critically endangered languages