Kiai is an Oceanic language spoken by about 450 people in the central highlands of Espiritu Santo island (Sanma Province), in Vanuatu.[2]

Kiai
Fortsenal
Vara Kiai
Native toVanuatu
RegionEspiritu Santo Island
Native speakers
450 (2001)[1]
Official status
Official language in
Vanuatu
Language codes
ISO 639-3frt
Glottologfort1240
ELPKiai
Kiai is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Name

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The name Kiai derives from kiai, meaning "no", due to a trend in the area to name languages based on their word for "no", used as a linguistic shibboleth. The language is called vara Kiai (from vara "speech, language"), i.e. 'the language that says kiai [for no]".

The same language has been named Fortsenal, based on the name of the village (locally Vorozenale) where the speakers live.[3]

Notes

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  1. ^ Kiai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ François, Alexandre; Franjieh, Michael; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Schnell, Stefan (2015). "The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu" (PDF). In François, Alexandre; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Franjieh, Michael; Schnell, Stefan (eds.). The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity. Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access. pp. 1–21. ISBN 9781922185235.
  3. ^ Clark, Ross (2009). Leo Tuai: A comparative lexical study of North and Central Vanuatu languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-603. ISSN 1448-8310.

References

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  • Vara Kiai: a Kiai wordlist / Tomas Ludvigson, Auckland [N.Z.] : Dept. of Anthropology, University of Auckland, 1989
  • Crowley, Terry. 2000. The language situation in Vanuatu. Current Issues in Language Planning, 1(1). 47–132.