Löyöp
Glottocode : leha1244 ISO 639-3 : urr
Löyöp is an Oceanic language from northern Vanuatu, spoken by about 240 people on the island of Ureparapara (Banks Islands
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The language
The language is mentioned in some sources (e.g. Tryon 1976) under the name “Lehalurup”, even though this doesn’t correspond to a place name. This is probably a variant of “Löyöp”, the community’s main village. The island as a whole, known to foreigners as “Ureparapara”, is known locally as Aö [a.ø].
The phylogenetic affiliation of Löyöp is the same as the other 138 languages spoken in Vanuatu: it is an Oceanic language – and thus a member of the vast Austronesian family that covers most islands in the Pacific. Within the northern Vanuatu “linkage”, Löyöp forms a linguistic link between Lehali on the one hand, and Volow on the other hand.
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The Löyöp corpus
The island of Ureparapara is difficult to access, due to the lack of regular trips by air or by sea. Alexandre François was able to collect data on the Löyöp language through unplanned encounters with Löyöp speakers who lived on other islands.
One of these speakers is Fred William Qasvarong, an older man from Löyöp, who resides on the island of Motalava. He taught the basics of the language to A. François, and told several traditional narratives in Löyöp.
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Notes on the language
3.1 Orthography
The orthography proposed for transcribing the Löyöp texts follows this alphabetical order:
{ a ä d e ē ë g i j k l m m̄ n n̄ o ō ö p q s t u v w y }.
Each of these letters corresponds to one phoneme in the language.
Löyöp has 16 phonemic consonants. The following chart lists the phonemes themselves (using IPA); the orthographic convention is shown in brackets. For example, the letter ‹q› in the orthography encodes the labiovelar stop /k͡pʷ/.
Table 1 – The 16 phonemic consonants of Löyöp
labiovelar |
bilabial |
alveolar |
post-alveolar |
velar |
|
voiceless stop |
k͡pʷ ‹q› |
p ‹p› |
t ‹t› |
ʧ ‹j› |
k ‹k› |
prenasalized voiced stop |
|
|
ⁿd ‹d› |
|
|
fricative |
v ‹v› |
s ‹s› |
|
ɣ ‹g› |
|
nasal |
ŋ͡mʷ ‹m̄› |
m ‹m› |
n ‹n› |
|
ŋ ‹n̄› |
lateral |
l ‹l› |
|
|||
approximant |
w ‹w› |
j ‹y› |
|
Löyöp has 10 vowels, all short; to which one may add the diphthong /i͡ɛ/, transcribed ‹ye›.
Table 2 – The 10 vowels of Löyöp
|
front |
back |
|
|
plain |
round |
|
close |
i ‹i› |
y ‹u› |
|
near-close |
ɪ ‹ē› |
ø ‹ö› |
ʊ ‹ō› |
open-mid |
ɛ ‹e› |
œ ‹ë› |
ɔ ‹o› |
near-open |
æ ‹ä› |
|
|
open |
a ‹a› |
Unprefixed words conform to the syllabic template (C)V(C):
- vujuwa [vy.ʧy.wa] ‘one’
- qan̄qan̄yis [k͡pʷaŋ.k͡pʷaŋ.jis] ‘bake food’
- kyeyjöl [ki͡ɛj.ʧøl] ‘the three of them’ (3:trial)
- jitm̄ey [ʧit.ŋ͡mʷɛj] ‘child’
C‑ prefixes are extrasyllabic, and commonly cause word-initial consonant clusters:
Table 3 – Five common prefixes in Löyöp
prefix |
example |
IPA |
meaning |
n‑ ‘article’ |
n‑liqyen |
[nlik͡pʷi͡ɛn] |
‘a woman’ |
m‑ ‘Perfect’ |
m‑dyen̄ |
[mⁿdi͡ɛŋ] |
‘reached’ |
k‑ ‘1sg Aorist’ |
k‑mijiy |
[kmiʧij] |
‘I’ll sleep’ |
n‑ ‘3sg Aorist’ |
n‑gēn |
[nɣɪn] |
‘he’ll eat’ |
t‑ ‘Future’ |
t‑kuy |
[tkyj] |
‘will crunch’ |
3.2 Pronominal indexing
The personal pronouns of Löyöp distinguish four numbers: singular, dual, trial, plural. They also strictly encode the contrast between ‘inclusive we’ [=you & me & others] and ‘exclusive we’ [me & others]. Thus the pronoun yedō “1inclusive: dual” means ‘you & me’, whereas mōmyō “1exclusive: dual” will read as ‘one person (other than you) + myself’, i.e. ‘me & him/her’.
The free pronouns, listed in the next table, can serve as subjects, objects of verbs, objects of prepositions.
Table 4 – The free personal pronouns of Löyöp
|
singular |
dual |
trial |
plural |
1 inclusive |
|
yedō |
yenjöl |
yen |
1 exclusive |
nö, nōk |
mōmyō |
mōmjöl |
kōmōm |
2 |
nin̄ |
mōyō |
möjöl |
kimi |
3 |
kye |
kyeyō |
kyeyjöl |
kyey |
(1) |
Nö |
nge |
gilal |
nin̄, |
pe |
nin̄ |
te |
gilal |
nö |
je. |
|
1sg |
stat |
know |
2sg |
but |
2sg |
neg₁ |
know |
1sg |
neg₂ |
|
‘I know you, but you don't know me.’ |
(2) |
Kyeyō |
se |
toto |
mi |
kōmōm. |
|
3du |
prospective |
stay |
with |
1exc:pl |
‘They (two) will stay with us.’ |
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Useful references
For more on the languages of Northern Vanuatu, visit http://alex.francois.online.fr. The following selected publications help understand Löyöp in its context:
François, Alexandre. 2011. Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence. Journal of Historical Linguistics 1 (2). 175-246.
François, Alexandre. 2012. The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 214, 85–110.
François, Alexandre, Michael Franjieh, Sébastien Lacrampe & Stefan Schnell. 2015. The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu. In A. François, S. Lacrampe, M. Franjieh & S. Schnell (eds), The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, 5. Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access. 1–21.
Here is how you can cite the present archive:
François, Alexandre. 2021. Archive of audio recordings in the Löyöp language. Pangloss collection. Paris: CNRS.
Resources
DOI | Type | Transcription(s) | Duration | Title | Researcher(s) | Speaker(s) |
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https://doi.org/10.24397/pangloss-0002593 | 00:07:56 | Le crabe-cocotier cannibale | François, Alexandre | Fred William Qasvarong | ||
https://doi.org/10.24397/pangloss-0002594 | 00:12:22 | Le cochon géant de Reef Islands | François, Alexandre | Fred William Qasvarong | ||
https://doi.org/10.24397/pangloss-0002595 | 00:03:53 | Le rat et la poule sultane | François, Alexandre | Fred William Qasvarong | ||
https://doi.org/10.24397/pangloss-0002596 | 00:06:53 | The two ogres Al and Oydin | François, Alexandre | Fred William Qasvarong |