Volow language

The name Volow is originally a placename: it corresponds to the area known today as Aplow, but in the former language Volow rather than in Mwotlap. Now that the Volow dialect has ceased to be used, the name Volow has been forgotten by the modern population. The place is only known through its Mwotlap name Aplow; as for the language variety, it is often referred to, in the Mwotlap language, as na-vap te-Plōw “the language of Aplow”. The language variety is sometimes also referred to as na-vap ta Dagmel “the language of Dagmel” (in Mwotlap), after the name of an ancient, now abandoned, village. ==Sociolinguistics==

Volow has receded historically in favor of the now dominant language Mwotlap. It is now only remembered by a single passive speaker, who lives in the village of Aplow — the new name of what was previously known as Volow. The similarity of Volow with Mwotlap is such that the two communalects may be considered dialects of a single language. ==Phonology==

Volow phonemically contrasts 16 consonants and 7 vowels. Consonants : This consonant inventory includes a typologically rare consonant: a rounded, prenasalised voiced labial-velar plosive : e.g. “woman” (spelled n-leq̄evēn in the local orthography). Amongst the 17 Torres–Banks languages, Volow is the only one to have preserved the voicing of the proto-phonemes *ᵑg > and *ᵐbʷ > , which are reconstructed for its ancestor Proto-Torres-Banks. All its neighbours (including Mwotlap) devoiced these to and respectively. Vowels The seven vowels of Volow are all short monophthongs: : ==Notes==