Vao is an Austronesian language of the Oceanic branch spoken by about 1,900 people on Vao Island and on the nearby shores of Malakula Island, Vanuatu.[2]

Vao
RegionVao Island and northern Malakula, Vanuatu
Native speakers
1,900 (2001)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3vao
Glottologvaoo1237
Vao is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Characteristics

edit

Vao is one of the few languages of the world that possesses linguolabial consonants.[3][example needed]

References

edit
  1. ^ Vao at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Ethnologue report for Vao
  3. ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian. The sounds of the world's languages. Blackwell Publishers. pp. 18–19. ISBN 9780631198147.