Nafsan
Nafsan is an Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu.
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The Nafsan language, also known as South Efate or Erakor, is a Southern Oceanic language spoken on the island of Efate in central Vanuatu. As of 2005, there are approximately 6,000 speakers who live in coastal villages from Pango to Eton. The language's grammar has been studied by Nick Thieberger, who has also produced a book of stories and a dictionary of the language.
Nafsan is closely related to Nguna and to Lelepa. Based on shared features with southern Vanuatu languages (including echo–subject marking, and the free and preposed 1st-singular-possessive morphemes), Lynch (2001) suggests it could form part of a southern Vanuatu subgroup that includes New Caledonia instead of the neighboring Efate languages.
From Wikipedia · Nafsan language · CC BY-SA 4.0
Words in Nafsan
| Meaning | Word | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| woman | nmatu | |
| water | vai | |
| night | p̃og | |
| four | ipat | |
| five | ilim | |
| die | mat |
Most similar languages
Vocabulary
- Eton (Vanuatu)Austronesian40% alike
- LelepaAustronesian37% alike
- North EfateAustronesian26% alike
- NamakuraAustronesian25% alike
- Neve'eiAustronesian22% alike
- Mele-FilaAustronesian22% alike
Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.
Nearby languages
Elsewhere
Glottolog · sout2856 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · erk