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Alexandre François. 2002. Araki: A Disappearing Language of Vanuatu. No. 522. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. xxi + 353 pp. ISBN 0-85883-493-6. Aus$63.00, paper.
Vanuatu, with at least 80 actively spoken languages distributed among only about 200,000 people, has probably more languages per head of population than any other country on earth. To date, fewer than a dozen substantial grammars of Vanuatu's languages have been published. (A number of other grammars have been produced as public-domain dissertations, though until these are published, access remains somewhat restricted.)
In addition to the actively spoken languages, up to a couple of dozen moribund languages are still spoken in Vanuatu. Surrounded by such linguistic richesse, it is easy to understand why many linguists may prefer to concentrate their attention on languages that are actively spoken, given the ease with which it is possible to gain access to natural speech in a range of different kinds of social contexts. However, because many of these moribund languages now have only a single generation of mostly elderly speakers left, we are at a crucial juncture if these languages are ever to be at all reliably documented before they disappear altogether. Given that Araki is one of these moribund languages, François's work here is especially valuable.
Araki is a language that has only about fifteen fully competent speakers, all of whom are now elderly. (In fact, sadly, F's main source of information, Chief Lele Moli, died before this description appeared.) Araki has not been in regular daily use in most families on Araki Island for over fifty years, with people generally having switched to the Tangoa language of the adjacent mainland. The precarious state of the language is something that is obvious to its speakers, and when chance circumstances forced a delay in F's initial plans to document an actively spoken language in the far north, some of the last speakers insisted that he take the time to document as much of the language as he could. For the Araki speakers' insistence, and for F's response in the form of this description, we should be thoroughly thankful.
This account of Araki is written in a way that allows for maximum comparability with other descriptions of Oceanic languages. It is written according to a straightforward descriptive...