Malo

MLA

developing

Dialects: Ataripoe (South Malo), Avunatari (North Malo), Tamambo, Tamapo. Reportedly similar to Araki ,, Aore , (extinct), and Tutuba ,.

Genealogy:

Austronesian

Malayo-Polynesian

Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian

Eastern Malayo-Polynesian

Oceanic

Central-Eastern Oceanic

Remote Oceanic

North and Central Vanuatu

Northeast Vanuatu-Banks Islands

West Santo

Demographics: 4,000 (Lynch and Crowley 2001), increasing.

Language Use: Southern dialect used only by a few elderly people. Home, gardens, market. All ages.

Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: Low. Poetry. Dictionary. Grammar. NT: 1954.

Typology: Nominative-accusative, head marking. Conservative in phonology, morphology, and lexicon, reflecting many of the attributes posited for Proto Oceanic. Extensive derivational morphology and serial verb constructions.

Writing System: Latin

Nation of Origin: Vanuatu