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Sowa |
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Sowa was the original language of south-central Pentecost island in Vanuatu. In recent times it has been totally displaced
by Apma, a neighbouring language. Sowa is very closely related to Ske, another south Pentecost language. Sowa was originally
spoken on both western and eastern sides of Pentecost. Melsisi River formed the language's north-western boundary, and its
range extended southwards to a creek near the village of Levizendam. Following the depopulation of Pentecost that occurred
after the introduction of European diseases, men from Sowa-speaking areas were forced to marry women from other parts of Pentecost,
who were mostly Apma speakers. As a result, by the 1960s, Apma had totally replaced Sowa as the predominant local language.
The last native Sowa speaker, Maurice Tabi of Vanvat village, died in 2000. Today, a few local people whose fathers or mothers
were Sowa speakers still remember parts of the language, although none speak it fluently. A couple, including Isaiah Tabi
Vahka of Waterfall Village and Adam Bulesisbwat of Lesuubelakan, compiled short written notes on Sowa in an attempt to ensure
that the language was not lost. The only linguist to have studied Sowa while the language was still alive was David Walsh,
who collected a vocabulary list in 1969, although Walsh's main informant (John Bule Seesee of Bwaravet village) was not a
native Sowa speaker. Andrew Gray, a British schoolteacher at Ranwadi College, worked with speakers' children in the late 2000s
to try to reconstruct the basics of the language. Some people in the former Sowa area see the language as a part of their
cultural heritage and lament its loss. There is talk of reviving Sowa, although this is not a high priority for most local
people, and records are insufficient to allow a fully authentic restoration of the language. |
Names (more)[en] Sowa language |
Language type : Extinct
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Sowa. |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-3 : swwLinked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/swwhttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:sww More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: swwFreebase ISO 639-3 : sww GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |