Big Nambas language

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Big Nambas language (native name V'ənen Taut)

Big Nambas is an Oceanic language spoken in the northwest of Malekula, Vanuatu. About 3,400 people spoke it in 2001, mainly in around 19 villages where the language is used without different dialects. UNESCO does not consider it endangered.

Classification and writing
- Language family: Austronesian → Malayo-Polynesian → Oceanic → Southern Oceanic → North-Central Vanuatu → Central Vanuatu → Malakula → Malakula Interior
- Script: Latin alphabet
- ISO code: nmb
- Glottolog: bign1238

Phonology and writing
- Big Nambas has five vowels and a fairly rich set of consonants. Stress on syllables is phonemic but partly predictable.
- Some consonants show gemination (doubling) when two identical sounds occur between syllables.
- Linguolabial consonants (made with the tongue against the lips) are often marked with an apostrophe in writing.
- The language allows complex syllable structures and even long vowel sequences; for example, nauei means “water.”

Grammar and word formation
- Big Nambas is a synthetic, head-marking language.
- Nouns can expand to form phrases; there are three noun classes.
- Derived nouns are created in five ways, and nouns can be joined with a verb stem to form compounds.

Study and literature
- The language was studied in depth by Greg J. Fox, who published a grammar and a dictionary in 1979.
- Andrew Fox completed a Big Nambas Bible translation.