Koro language (Vanuatu)

This article is about the Koro language of Vanuatu. For other uses, see Koro language (disambiguation).

Koro is an Oceanic language spoken on Gaua island in Vanuatu. Its 280 speakers live in the village of Koro, on the south coast of Gaua.^[2]

Koro
Pronunciation	[kʊrʊ]
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Gaua
Native speakers	250 (2012)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic North-Central Vanuatu North Vanuatu Torres-Banks Koro
Language codes
ISO 639-3	krf
Glottolog	koro1318
ELP	Koro (Vanuatu)
Koro is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Koro is a distinct language from its immediate neighbours, Dorig (300 sp.) and Olrat (4 sp.).^[3]

Name

The name Koro, spelled natively as Kōrō [kʊrʊ], is an endonym referring to the village.

Phonology

Koro has 8 phonemic vowels. These include 7 monophthongs /i ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ u/ and one diphthong /ɛ͡a/.^[4]

	Front	Back
Near-close	i ⟨i⟩	u ⟨u⟩
Close-mid	ɪ ⟨ē⟩	ʊ ⟨ō⟩
Open-mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩
Open	a ⟨a⟩

The diphthong [ɛ͡a] is spelled as ⟨ä⟩.

Grammar

The system of personal pronouns in Koro contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, plural).^[5]

Spatial reference in Koro is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is typical of Oceanic languages.^[6]