Lovono language
{{Short description|Endangered Oceanic language of the Solomon Islands}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Lovono
|nativename = Alavana
|states=Solomon Islands
|region=Vanikoro
|speakers=4
|date=2012
|familycolor=Austronesian
|fam2=Malayo-Polynesian
|fam3=Oceanic
|fam4=Temotu
|fam5=Vanikoro
|iso3=vnk
|glotto=vano1237
|glottorefname=Lovono
|map = Lang Status 20-CR.svg
|mapcaption = {{center|{{small|Lovono is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger}}}}
}}
Lovono (Vano, Alavano, Alavana) is a nearly extinct language of the island of Vanikoro in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands. As of 2012, it is only spoken by four speakers;[http://alex.francois.free.fr/AF-field.htm#Solomons Homepage of the linguist A. François]. it has been replaced by the island’s dominant language, Teanu.
Name
File:AlexFrancois_carte-Vanikoro-ile-821.jpg I., showing the historical territories of the three tribes of Lovono, Tanema and Teanu.Source: [http://alex.francois.online.fr/AF-maps-Vanikoro.htm#a Maps of Vanikoro (languages, place names)].]]
The language name makes reference to an ancient village in the northwest of the island Banie.{{Harvcoltxt|François|2009}}. In the language Lovono, which was once the dominant one in that area, the village was called Alavana. In Teanu, which is now the only language spoken by the modern population, the same village is called Lovono. This language shift is reflected in the people’s preference to use the Teanu form (i.e. Lovono) both for the village name and for the ancient language that used to be associated with it.
The same village – and hence the language – has been also spelled Whanou or Vano in the scientific literature, possibly reflecting an older pronunciation of the word.
The language
Some information on the languages of Vanikoro, including Lovono, can be found in {{Harvcoltxt|François|2009}} for the grammar, and François (2021) for the lexicon.See also François (2022) for a general presentation.
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{Citation
| last = François
| first = Alexandre
| author-link = Alexandre François (linguist)
| contribution = The languages of Vanikoro: Three lexicons and one grammar
| editor-last = Evans
| editor-first = Bethwyn
| title = Discovering history through language: Papers in honour of Malcolm Ross
| volume =
| pages = 103–126
| publisher = Australian National University
| place = Canberra
| year = 2009
| series = Pacific Linguistics 605
| isbn =
| url=
| contribution-url = http://alex.francois.online.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2009_Vanikoro-languages.pdf
}}
- —— (2021). [http://alex.francois.free.fr/AF-Vanikoro-notes_e.htm Online Teanu–English dictionary], with lexical data in Lovono and Tanema. Paris, CNRS.
- {{cite web
|url=https://pangloss.cnrs.fr/corpus/Lovono?lang=en&mode=pro&seeMore=true
|title=Presentation of the Lovono language, and audio archive
|last=François
|first=Alexandre
|author-mask=2
|author-link=
|date=2022
|website=Pangloss Collection
|location=Paris
|publisher=CNRS
|access-date=26 September 2022
|quote=
|ref=pangloss}}
External links
{{Wiktionary|Category:Lovono lemmas}}
- [https://pangloss.cnrs.fr/corpus/Lovono?lang=en&mode=pro Audio recordings in the Lovono language], in open access, by A. François (source: Pangloss Collection of CNRS).
{{Languages of the Solomon Islands}}
{{Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages}}
Category:Languages of the Solomon Islands
Category:Endangered Austronesian languages
Category:Critically endangered languages
{{oceanic-lang-stub}}