| Olrat | |
|---|---|
| Ōlrat | |
| Pronunciation | [ʊlrat] |
| Native to | Vanuatu |
| Region | Gaua |
Native speakers | 3 (2012)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | olr |
| Glottolog | olra1234 |
| ELP | Olrat |
 Olrat is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Olrat was anOceanic language ofGaua island, in northernVanuatu. It became extinct in 2009 with the death of its last speaker, Maten Womal.[2]
The nameOlrat (spelled natively asŌlrat[ʊlrat]) is an endonym.Robert Codrington mentions a place south of Lakon village under theMota nameUlrata.[3] A few decades later,Sidney Ray mentions the language briefly in 1926 under the same Mota name ‒ but provides no linguistic information.[4]
In 2003, only three speakers of Olrat remained, who lived on the middle-west coast of Gaua.[5] 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 whereLakon is dominant.[1][2]
Alexandre François identifies Olrat as a distinct language from its immediate neighborLakon, on phonological,[6] grammatical,[7] and lexical[8] grounds.
Olrat has 14phonemic vowels. These include 7 short /i ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ u/ and 7 long vowels /iː ɪː ɛː aː ɔː ʊː uː/.[9][2]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Near-close | i⟨i⟩ ∙iː⟨ii⟩ | u⟨u⟩ ∙uː⟨uu⟩ |
| Close-mid | ɪ⟨ē⟩ ∙ɪː⟨ēē⟩ | ʊ⟨ō⟩ ∙ʊː⟨ōō⟩ |
| Open-mid | ɛ⟨e⟩ ∙ɛː⟨ee⟩ | ɔ⟨o⟩ ∙ɔː⟨oo⟩ |
| Open | a⟨a⟩ ∙aː⟨aa⟩ | |
Historically, the phonologization of vowel length originates in thecompensatory lengthening of short vowels when thevoiced velar fricative/ɣ/ was lost syllable-finally.[10]
The system ofpersonal pronouns in Olrat contrastsclusivity, and distinguishes fournumbers (singular,dual,trial, plural).[11]
Spatial reference in Olrat is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is typical ofOceanic languages.[12]
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