Pacific Linguistics title

A descriptive grammar of Merei ( Vanuatu )

Ying Shing Anthony CHUNG

PL 573 (Shorter Grammars)

The Merei language is spoken by about four hundred people in the villages of Angoru, Navele, Tombet and Vusvogo in the interior of Espiritu Santo Island , Vanuatu . Merei, like most other languages from the interior of Espiritu Santo , has not previously been described. Merei is an SVO language with many typical Oceanic features such as a split between alienable and inalienable possession and frequent verb serialisation. Morphological structure is relatively simple, but bi-morphemic nouns are common. The language is rigidly head-marking and prepositional.  This work is mainly based on language data collected by the author in Navele village in Espiritu Santo Island of Vanuatu, where he lived from May 1995 until March 1997.

2005 ISBN 0 5883 560 6 xi + 74 pp
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Pacific Linguistics
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
CANBERRA A.C.T. 0200
Australia

Last modified: 15 August 2004
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