Malo

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A language of Vanuatu

ISO 639-3
mla
Population

4,000 (Lynch and Crowley 2001), increasing.

Location

North; Malo island; some in Santo and Port Vila.

Language Maps
Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central-Eastern Oceanic, Remote Oceanic, North and Central Vanuatu, Northeast Vanuatu-Banks Islands, West Santo
Dialects

Ataripoe (South Malo), Avunatari (North Malo), Tamambo, Tamapo. Similar to Araki [akr], Aore [aor] (extinct), and Tutuba [tmi].

Typology

Nominative-accusative, head marking. Conservative in phonology, morphology, and lexicon, reflecting many of the attributes posited for Proto Oceanic. Extensive derivational morphology and serial verb constructions

Language Use

Southern dialect used only by a few elderly people. Home, gardens, market. All ages.

Language Development
Literacy rate in L1: Low. Poetry. Dictionary. Grammar. NT: 1954.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Malo
Writing
Latin script.