A Comprehensive Comparison of Lexemes in the ... - SIL International

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Map 1. Map of Tanna: Language areas and villages where data was elicited.
Table 1.1. Demographic information on the languages of Tanna.†
Language Selfnames Population Village(s) where elicited
Kwamera/South nəfe ‘what’ 3,300–5,000 Yenmarei
Tanna
Lenakel
nɨtuar ‘what’ 8,500– Lonapkiko
(historically) 11,500
N Tanna nɨnakə ‘say what’ 5,000 Lomakaun
SW Tanna naha ‘what’; sipəru 3,500–4,500 Yenemilen, Yenapkasu
‘give it’
Vaha (‘give it’) nəlpai mɨne ‘fat 400–600 Isaka
tribe’
Whitesands narak ‘what’ 5,500–7,500 Loarfi, Loniel
(historically)
†The 2009 census data would have been preferable but was not yet available at the time of writing this
paper. Lindstrom (1983:387) argues that nɨtuar (Lenakel selfname) and narak (Whitesands selfname) are
unanalyzable, and that language names without apparent meaning carry less political weight than those
with meaning; hence the appearance of folk etymologies. He records another selfname for SW Tanna, hauap̃ə,
which means ‘come (PL) here.’