The two languages Vera’a and Lemerig belong to the Oceanic group of languages within the Austronesian language family. They are both from Vanua Lava, the largest island of the Torres and Banks islands in the northmen Torba province of the Republic of Vanuatu. The Torres and Banks islands are home to 16 languages still spoken today that are all closely related to one another (Kalyan & François 2018). The largest language on Vanua Lava is Vurës which is spoken by more than 2000 speakers (Malau 2016), Another larger language of the area is Mwotlap from the neighbouring island of Motalava with close to 3000 speakers (François 2001). Adult speakers of Vera’a an all know Vurës, and most also know Mwotlap. Another language present on Vanua Lava is the language of Mota which was deployed by the Anglican mission in the area, and texts in which are still found in some prayer books and hym books. As a means of wider communication in all of Vanuatu, the contact language Bislama (most English-lexifying) is used by Vanua Lava’s in communication with outsiders. Finally, school education in the region is in either English or French.
Vera’a
The language of Vera’a (vera1241) is spoken by a growing population of 500 who reside in the village of Vera’a on the west coast of Vanua Lava and along the coastline approximately 12km to the north. The language is still being learned by all children and also by all immigrants into the community, mostly women who have married a man from Vera’a. The Vera’a corpus is a monitor corpus that is continuously being expanded. It has initially been compiled during a DoBeS documentation project targeting the two language Vurës and Vera’a and led by Catriona Malau.
Lemerig
The language of Lemerig (leme1238) has recently gone extinct, with its last speaker Isso Vorēs having passed away on 18 May 2024. His wife Hope and his son Mark can understand Lemerig and still remember many aspects of the language but have little active competence. Lemerig used to be the main language of villages in northwest Vanua Lava in the and around the village of Pek/Abek until 1945.
Stefan Schnell 