Olrat language

The name Olrat (spelled natively as Ōlrat {{IPA|olr|ʊlrat|}}) is an endonym. Robert Codrington mentions a place south of Lakon village under the Mota name Ulrata.See [https://archive.org/details/melanesianlangua00codruoft/page/378/mode/1up page 378] of: {{cite book

|last=Codrington

|first=R. H.

|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

}} A few decades later, Sidney Ray mentions the language briefly in 1926 under the same Mota name ‒ but provides no linguistic information.See [https://books.google.com/books?id=IeE8AAAAIAAJ&q=%22Volow%22&pg=PA428 page 428] of: {{cite book |title=A Comparative Study of the Melanesian Island Languages |last=Ray |first=Sidney Herbert |authorlink=Sidney Herbert Ray |year=1926 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9781107682023 |pages=xvi+598 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h9tkAwAAQBAJ |accessdate= |ref=Ray}}

.

File:Alex-Maten-Gaua-2003.jpg, Vanuatu, 2003)}}]]

In 2003, only three speakers of Olrat remained, who lived on the middle-west coast of Gaua.[http://alex.francois.free.fr/AF-field.htm List of Banks islands languages]. Their community had left their inland hamlet of Olrat in the first half of the 20th century, and merged into the larger village of Jōlap where Lakon is dominant.{{Harvcoltxt|François|2012}}.

Alexandre François identifies Olrat as a distinct language from its immediate neighbor Lakon, on phonological,{{Harvcoltxt|François|2005}} grammatical,{{Harvcoltxt|François|2007}} and lexical{{Harvcoltxt|François|2011}} grounds.

{{Clear}}

Olrat has 14 phonemic vowels. These include 7 short /i ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ u/ and 7 long vowels /iː ɪː ɛː aː ɔː ʊː uː/.{{Harvcoltxt|François|2005|p=445}}, {{Harvcoltxt|François|2011|p=194}}.

Historically, the phonologization of vowel length originates in the compensatory lengthening of short vowels when the voiced velar fricative {{IPA|/ɣ/}} was lost syllable-finally.{{Harvcoltxt|François|2005|p=461}}.

The system of personal pronouns in Olrat contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, plural).François (2016).

Spatial reference in Olrat is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is typical of Oceanic languages.François (2015).

{{reflist|2|}}

• {{citation

|doi=10.1353/ol.2005.0034

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|author-link = Alexandre François (linguist)

|year=2005

|title=Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages

|journal=Oceanic Linguistics

|volume=44

|issue=2

|pages=443–504

|s2cid=131668754

|url=https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_VowelsNorthernVanuatu_OL44-2.pdf

}}

• {{Citation

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| author-link= Alexandre François

| author-mask=2

| contribution = Noun articles in Torres and Banks languages: Conservation and innovation

| editor1-last = Siegel

| editor1-first = Jeff

| editor2-last = Lynch

| editor2-first = John

| editor3-last = Eades

| editor3-first = Diana

| title = Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley

| volume =

| pages = 313–326

| publisher = Benjamins

| place = Amsterdam

| year = 2007

| series = Creole Language Library 30

| contribution-url= https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2007_Articles-Vanuatu_Crowley-volume.pdf

| isbn =

}}

• {{citation

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|author-mask=2

|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

}}.

• {{citation

|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

|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

|editor1= 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

| url = http://hdl.handle.net/1885/14819

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

| date = 2015

| hdl = 1885/14819

| ref = updown }}

• {{citation

|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_s.pdf

|ref=pronouns

}}

• {{cite web

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

|title=Presentation of the Olrat language and audio archive

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|author-mask=2

|date=2022

|website=Pangloss Collection

|location=Paris

|publisher=CNRS

|access-date=29 Sep 2022

|quote=

|ref=pangloss}}

• [http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/cr_files/2008-078.pdf Petition (2008) to create ISO code for Olrat]
• [http://alex.francois.online.fr/AlexFrancois_Torba-languages_map.htm Linguistic map of north Vanuatu, showing range of Olrat on Gaua].
• [http://alex.francois.online.fr/AF-literacy-stories-e.htm A book of traditional stories, monolingual in Olrat language] (site of linguist A. François)
• [https://pangloss.cnrs.fr/corpus/Olrat?lang=en&mode=pro Access to audio recordings in Olrat language] (section of the Pangloss Collection, CNRS)

{{Languages of Vanuatu}}

{{Southern Oceanic languages}}

{{Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages}}

Category:Banks–Torres languages

Category:Critically endangered languages

Category:Endangered languages of Oceania

Category:Torba Province

Category:Extinct languages of Vanuatu