Abstract

This article gives an overview of the progress of linguistic research and other language work in Vanuatu. Using a database of resources in and about Vanuatu languages, we first investigate grammatical descriptions, lexical descriptions and other types of linguistic research about Vanuatu’s Oceanic languages, discussing patterns in regional coverage and progress over time. We then focus on two types of texts that are particularly important to language documentation and language planning in Vanuatu: annotated multimedia corpora and Bible translations. We also briefly discuss research on Vanuatu’s official languages, Bislama, English and French. We see strong regional effects in coverage of Vanuatu languages, emphasising the importance of community and researcher networks. Languages of Vanuatu’s two largest and most linguistically diverse islands, Espiritu Santo and Malekula, are the least researched. Overall, our investigation shows steady progress in documentation and analysis of Vanuatu’s languages over the past seventy years, with occasional declines in response to specific events like the Covid-19 pandemic.

Te Reo-Volume 68-Issue 2-pp. 31–78