Endangered Languages Project

ALSO KNOWN AS		Onua
CLASSIFICATION		Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central Vanuatu
CODE AUTHORITY		ISO 639-3
LANGUAGE CODE		onu
DOWNLOAD		As csv
MORE RESOURCES		OLAC search
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS		The name 'Unua' is derived from bangon nue 'mouth river'. (Elizabeth Pearce 2015)

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Information from: “A Grammar of Unua” . Elizabeth Pearce (2015) De Gruyter Mouton

Vulnerable

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
Ethnic population
710 (as of 1999 The Vanuatu National Population and Housing Census)

DOMAINS OF USE

SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS

TRANSMISSION

MORE ON VITALITY

"Whilst Unua is the principal language used in daily interactions in the area, as discussed in section 13.1, all adults and all school age children are fluent speakers of Bislama. Bislama is also the language of choice for certain kinds of (more formal) interactions and in a small number of households." (p.2)

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

Bislama
English
French

LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS

"Interactions between speakers of different vernacular languages are conducted in Bislama. Although schooling in Vanuatu is traditionally conducted in English or French, for adults, only the small numbers who have had some secondary school education have maintained degrees of fluency in either one of these languages, of which there would be only a handful in the Unua area with competency in French." (p.2)

PLACES: Vanuatu

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: "five villages strung out beside the north-south road which connects the centres of Norsup/Lakatoro in the centre-north and Lamap to the south"

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: "the villages names are: Batabbu, Batabong, Penamor, Ruxbo and Black Sands"

PLACES: Vanuatu

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
520
Native speakers worldwide

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

PLACES: Vanuatu

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Malekula

		2014	Glottolog 2.3						Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology	http://glottolog.org	Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspelmath, Martin & Nordhoff, Sebastian	Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspelmath, Martin & Nordhoff, Sebastian. 2014. Glottolog 2.3. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at http://glottolog.org)														Vanuatu		-16.26, 167.60
	Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia	2015	The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu	The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity	1–21	Alexandre François, Sebastien Lacrampe, Michael Franjieh, and Stefan Schnell	Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access	Canberra		http://hdl.handle.net/1885/14819	Alexandre François, Michael Franjieh, Sebastien Lacrampe, and Stefan Schnell	Alexandre François, Michael Franjieh, Sebastien Lacrampe, and Stefan Schnell. 2015. The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu. In "The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity", ed. by Alexandre François, Sebastien Lacrampe, Michael Franjieh, and Stefan Schnell. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, 5. Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access. Pp. 1–21. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/14819		520	100-999		Bislama, English, French			Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)						Vanuatu	Malekula
978-1614517658	Pacific Linguistics	2015	A Grammar of Unua				De Gruyter Mouton				Elizabeth Pearce	Elizabeth Pearce. 2015. A Grammar of Unua. De Gruyter Mouton.	710 (as of 1999 The Vanuatu National Population and Housing Census)			official domains; intragroup communications	Bislama, English, French	"Interactions between speakers of different vernacular languages are conducted in Bislama. Although schooling in Vanuatu is traditionally conducted in English or French, for adults, only the small numbers who have had some secondary school education have maintained degrees of fluency in either one of these languages, of which there would be only a handful in the Unua area with competency in French." (p.2)	all bilingual in Bislama	Vulnerable (80 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	10	"Whilst Unua is the principal language used in daily interactions in the area, as discussed in section 13.1, all adults and all school age children are fluent speakers of Bislama. Bislama is also the language of choice for certain kinds of (more formal) interactions and in a small number of households." (p.2)	11	10	"the villages names are: Batabbu, Batabong, Penamor, Ruxbo and Black Sands"	Vanuatu	"five villages strung out beside the north-south road which connects the centres of Norsup/Lakatoro in the centre-north and Lamap to the south"

Unua

Language metadata

Language information by source

Vulnerable

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

520

Discussion

Unua

Language metadata

Language information by source

Vulnerable

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

520

Discussion

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