Wailapa language

{{short description|Language}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Wailapa

| altname = Moiso, Ale

| state = Vanuatu

| region = Espiritu Santo

| ethnicity =

| speakers = 500François (2015), p.19

| familycolor = Austronesian

| fam2 = Malayo-Polynesian

| fam3 = Oceanic

| fam4 = Southern Oceanic

| fam5 = North-Central Vanuatu

| fam6 = North Vanuatu

| fam7 = Espiritu Santo

| iso3 = wlr

| glotto = wail1242

| glottorefname = Ale

| map = Vanuatu - Espiritu Santo.PNG

| mapcaption = Espiritu Santo, where Wailapa is spoken on the southern coast

| map2 = Lang Status 99-NE.svg

| mapcaption2 = {{center|{{small|Wailapa is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger}}}}

}}

Wailapa, or Moiso or Ale, is an Oceanic language{{Cite web |title=Glottolog 5.1 - Ale |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/wail1242 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=glottolog.org}}{{Cite news |title=Wailapa {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/wlr |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230309084505/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/wlr/ |archive-date=2023-03-09 |access-date=2025-02-08 |work=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en-US}} or dialect{{Cite book |last1=Lynch |first1=John |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/7a13bcf9-f23f-449d-aa05-0f418f998a92/content |title=Languages of Vanuatu: A New Survey and Bibliography |last2=Crowley |first2=Terry |year=2001 |pages=51–52 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240719045334/https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/7a13bcf9-f23f-449d-aa05-0f418f998a92/content |archive-date=19 July 2024}} spoken on Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu.

It is possibly endangered,{{Cite web |title=Did you know Wailapa is endangered? |url=https://endangeredlanguages.com/lang/3338 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=Endangered Languages |language=en}} with its status described as "shifting".{{Cite web |title=Glottolog 5.1 - Ale |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/wail1242 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=glottolog.org}} It is also described as "stable".

It has multiple dialects.{{Cite book |last=Tryon |first=D. T. (Darrell T. ) |url=https://archive.org/details/newhebrideslangu0000tryo |title=New Hebrides languages : an internal classification |date=1976 |publisher=Canberra : Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-85883-152-0}}