Ske
Seke
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Pentecost Island
Native speakers	300 (2011)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic North-Central Vanuatu Central Vanuatu Ske
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ske
Glottolog	seke1241
ELP	Seke (Vanuatu)
Ske is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Ske (or Seke) is an endangered language of south-western Pentecost island in Vanuatu. Ske is an Oceanic language (a branch of the Austronesian language family).

The Ske area comprises fourteen small villages centred on Baravet in south-central Pentecost, from Liavzendam (Levizendam) in the north to Hotwata in the south and extending inland to Vanliamit. Historically the language's area extended to parallel areas of the east coast, but this part of the island is now depopulated.

Due to intermarriage between language areas, an increasing number of people in Ske-speaking villages now speak Bislama as a first language, and Ske is no longer being actively transmitted to children. A closely related neighbouring language, Sowa, has already been totally displaced by Apma.

The number of Ske speakers is estimated at 300. The widely reported figure of 600 is probably an overestimate, since not everybody in the Ske area is fluent in the language.

There is no significant dialectal variation within modern Ske, although there are noticeable differences between the Ske of older and younger speakers. Doltes, the extinct dialect of Hotwata village, is sometimes regarded as a Ske dialect, but appears to have been closer to Sa.

There is no local tradition of writing in Ske, and until recently the language was virtually undocumented. However, linguist Kay Johnson has written a PhD thesis on the language, including a sketch grammar. Prior to her arrival, the only records of Ske were short vocabulary lists collected by David Walsh in the 1960s, Catriona Hyslop in 2001 and Andrew Gray in 2007.

Phonology

Following the orthography developed by linguist Kay Johnson in consultation with the Ske community, the consonants of Ske are b, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, ng (as in English "singer"), p, q (prenasalized [g], written ngg or ḡ in some sources), r, s, t, bilabial v, w, z, and labiovelar bw, mw, pw and vw.

A notable characteristic of Ske is the dropping of unstressed vowels. This has resulted in a language rich in consonants, in contrast to related languages such as Raga. Geminate consonants occur where two identical consonants have been brought together by the historical loss of an intervening vowel, for example in -kkas "to be sweet" (compare Sowa kakas). Due to the presence of consonant clusters within syllables and other phonological features not typical of the area's languages, speakers of neighbouring languages consider Ske difficult to speak and learn.

Prenasalization of consonants occurs, so that b is pronounced mb, and d is pronounced nd.

Unlike neighbouring languages such as Apma, Ske permits a variety of voiced consonants to occur at the end of syllables, although when they occur at the end of an utterance they are often followed by an 'echo' of the previous vowel. Thus, iq "you", for example, is often pronounced inggi.

In addition to the five standard vowels (a, e, i, o and u), Ske has mid-high vowels é (intermediate between e and i) and ó (intermediate between o and u), like in Sowa and Sa languages. Vowels do not appear to be distinguished for length.

Stress typically occurs on the final syllable of a word.

Grammar

Basic word order in Ske is subject–verb–object.

Sample phrases

References

• Gray, Andrew. 2012. The Languages of Pentecost Island.
• Lynch, John and Crowley, Terry. 2001. Languages of Vanuatu: A New Survey and Bibliography.
• Tryon, Darrell, 1976. New Hebrides Languages: An Internal Classification: Series C - No. 50. Pacific Linguistics.

External links

• The Languages of Pentecost Island - further information on Ske
• ELAR archive of Ske (Seke) language documentation materials