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Naleh

About Me and My Language

Orthography   Morphology   Story/Song   Word List   Syntax    Language Use     Dictionary

I am originally rom Beterliv, North-West Malekula, Vanuatu. My adopted paternal grandparents migrated to the Island of Malo. My dad was raised up in Malekula until adolescence and moved to Port-Vila, the capital city to study at Lycee Louis Antoine de Bougainville. My dad speaks several native dialogues, Bislama (Vanuatu Pidgin), and French. My mother is from Lifou, New Caledonie, a french colony in the Melanesia region of South Pacific. She was raised in the village speaking Drehu (native tongue), Tayo Creole, and French. He met my mother in the island of banks when both of them were teachers at Arep Junior Secondary school. I was first product of their loving relationship. I was raised up Luganville town, Santo speaking Bislama and I went to an anglophone elementary school. After the death of my mum, my family relocated to Malo island where my Father taught at Nandiutu elementary school, a french school. There is no english school nearby so I had to live with my dad's aunty, Betina in the village and go to school.  Living with my grandma Betina I learned to speak Naleh because everyone only speaks Naleh. I speak Naleh for four years until I left for college. I went to Matevulu, and Malapoa college where we are only allowed to speak either English or French. In 2010, I got the United States South Pacific scholarship and came to Hawaii to study biology at the University of Hawaii.


Your name (first, last)
Sandrine Meltewomu
Contact Email smeltewo@hawaii.edu or centygal@gmail.com
Preferred name(s) of your language Naleh
Alternative names Nileh
Language classification Austronesian/ Letemboi
Geographical areas where spoken Small Nambas, North West Malekula
Approximate number of monolingual speakers Naleh (200 speakers)/ Letemboi ( 600 -800 people)
Other languages spoken in the area/country Bislama, English, French
Official language(s) in your country English, French
Does your language have a widely accepted writing system?
No
If yes, what materials are written?

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Background of the Language
Naleh is spoken in the small nambas tribe of North West Malekula. There are only about 800 - 1000 speakers so it
highly threatened.

What other sources have said about your language

Source Reported number of speakers Vitality Assessment            
www.ethnologue.com 800 (2001)
6B (threatened)
www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/en/atlasmap.com N/A
N/A
www.endangeredlanguages.com 90 (1983)
Severely endangered
www.wikipedia.com 800 (2001)
6b (threatened)
(other source) N/A
N/A

Naleh is severely endangered and this makes me more concerned about it.

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