Katbol Languge of Malekula Vanuatu

[gilbert read]

Dear Friends,
             Belated Seasons  Greetings.
             I am writing to ask if anyone knows how I
can get hold of vocabulary or texts in the Katbol
language of Malekula Island in Vanuatu.  I believe it
is used by only several hundred people and the only
vocaulary I've been able to find so far is a couple of
hundred words in Tryon's book on the Internal
Classification of the Languages of the New Hebrides
(now Vanuatu) which classifies the languages in
Vanuatu on the basis of similarities in vocabulary.  I
am particularly interested in finding out about the
Tisvel dialect of Katbol.
              I live in Melbourne but hope to visit
Vanuatu in March and to collect some material then
from friends there.
              Any information will be gratefully
recieved.
              From the few dozen words I've so far
gleaned it appears that Katbol almost entirely lacks
the na- and/or n- noun-prefixes so typical of other
Melanesian  languages in Vanuatu even on nouns which
have na- or n- type noun-prefixed cognates in
neighboring languages .
              Thankyou,
                       Yours,
                             Gilbert Read
                             Melbourne Australia

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