Rennellese
Language facts sheet by Niklas Jonsson
©1997-1999 POLLI & Niklas Jonsson
A bibliography of works refered to in this file may be found in the
Polynesian Literature List.
Country/territory where spoken
Solomon Islands
Geographical region
Rennell and Bellona Islands
Language codes
REN (POLLI); MNV (ISO 639-3);
MNV (Grimes 1996: Ethnologue);
REN (Biggs 1971)
Alternate language names
Rennell, Rennellese-Bellonese
Genetic affiliation
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Eastern
Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central-Eastern Oceanic, Remote Oceanic, Central
Pacific, Eastern Fiji-Polynesian, Polynesian, Nuclear Polynesian, Samoic-Outlier, Futunic
Dialect names
Munggava (Mugava, Mugaba, Rennellese, Rennell), Mungiki (Mugiki, Muniki,
Bellonese, Bellona)
Rennellese speaking population
1,945 (1976 census); 1,945 total.
Status of language
Not listed as endangered in the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (2009).
Alphabet
A, E, I, O, U, ', NG, NNG, H, K, L, M, N, P, S, T, V (Biggs 1971:480, Stanley
1989) - may be incomplete/incorrect. Stanley (1989) mentions the village name
"Lavanngu" including an L, while Biggs (1971) lists no L for the Rennellese
language. The people of Bellona pronounce Rennellese NNG (prenasalized velar
stop) as NG (velar nasal), and Rennellese S as H (the latter only in some
words); V is pronounced bilabially on both islands (Biggs 1971). G seems to be
used for NG sometimes (see "Dialect names" above).
Word order typology
SVO, VSO
Remarks
Speakers are thought to be descendants of people from Wallis and Futuna (Stanley
1989:650) - probably Futuna. Melanesian influences on the Rennellese language
have been clearly demonstrated (Elbert 1965).
Data last updated
28 April 2010
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY - RENNELLESE
ELBERT, SAMUEL H.
1962. Phonemic expansion in Rennellese (in: Journal of the Polynesian
Society, vol 71, p 25-31). Wellington. Polynesian Society
ELBERT, SAMUEL H.
1965. Phonological expansions in Outlier Polynesian (in: Milner/Henderson
(editors); Indo-Pacific linguistic studies - part 1 , p 431-42)
ELBERT, SAMUEL H.
1975. Dictionary of the language of Rennell and Bellona - part 1 (Rennellese-English). Copenhagen. National Museam of Denmark
ELBERT, SAMUEL H.
1981. Dictionary of the language of Rennell and Bellona - part 2 (English-Rennellese)
ELBERT, SAMUEL H.
1988. Echo of a culture: a grammar of Rennell and Bellona
ELBERT, SAMUEL H./MONBERG, TORBEN (EDITORS).
1965. From the two canoes: oral traditions of Rennell and Bellona Islands.
Honolulu. University of Hawai'i Press
MINK ROSSEN, JANE.
1987. Songs of Bellona Island (Na taungua o Muniki)
MONBERG, TORBEN.
1976. Ungrammatical love on Bellona (Mungiki) (in: Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol 85, pp 243-255). Wellington. The Polynesian Society
[TRAD.].
1942-1987. Portions of the Bible
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