| Volow | |
|---|---|
| Aplow, Valuwa | |
| Vōlōw | |
| Pronunciation | [βʊˈlʊw] |
| Native to | Vanuatu |
| Region | Mota Lava island,Banks Islands |
| Extinct | 1986, with the death of Wanhan[1] 1 passive speaker (2021)[2] |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | volo1238 |
| ELP | Volow |
 Volow is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Volow (formerly known asValuwa orValuga) is anOceanic language variety that used to be spoken in the area ofAplow, in the eastern part of the island ofMotalava,Vanuatu.[1][3][4][5]
The nameVolow[βʊˈlʊw] is originally a placename: it corresponds to the area known today asAplow, but in the former language Volow rather than inMwotlap. Now that the Volow dialect has ceased to be used, the nameVolow has been forgotten by the modern population. The place is only known through its Mwotlap nameAplow; as for the language variety, it is often referred to, in the Mwotlap language, asna-vap te-Plōw “the language of Aplow”.
The language variety is sometimes also referred to asna-vap ta Dagmel “the language of Dagmel” (in Mwotlap), after the name of an ancient, now abandoned, village.
Volow hasreceded historically in favor of the now dominant languageMwotlap.[1] It is now only remembered by a single passive speaker, who lives in the village ofAplow — the new name of what was previously known as Volow.
The similarity of Volow with Mwotlap is such that the twocommunalects may be considereddialects of a single language.
Volowphonemically contrasts 16 consonants and 7 vowels.[2]
| Labial–velar | Bilabial | Alveolar | Dorsal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | ŋ͡mʷ⟨m̄⟩ | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ŋ⟨n̄⟩ | ||
| Stop | voiceless | t⟨t⟩ | ||||
| prenasalized | ᵑᵐɡ͡bʷ⟨q̄⟩ | ᵐb⟨b⟩ | ⁿd⟨d⟩ | ᵑɡ⟨ḡ⟩ | ||
| Fricative | β[a]⟨v⟩ | s⟨s⟩ | ɣ⟨g⟩ | h⟨h⟩ | ||
| Approximant | w⟨w⟩ | l⟨l⟩ | j⟨y⟩ | |||
This consonant inventory includes a typologically rare consonant: arounded,prenasalisedvoiced labial-velar plosive[ᵑᵐɡ͡bʷ]:[6] e.g.[n.lɛᵑᵐɡ͡bʷɛβɪn] “woman”[7] (spelledn-leq̄evēn in the local orthography).
Amongst the 17Torres–Banks languages, Volow is the only one to have preserved the voicing of the proto-phonemes*ᵑg >/ᵑɡ/ and*ᵐbʷ >/ᵑᵐɡ͡bʷ/, which are reconstructed for its ancestorProto-Torres-Banks. All its neighbours (including Mwotlap)devoiced these to/k/ and/k͡pʷ/ respectively.[8]
The seven vowels of Volow are all shortmonophthongs:[9]
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