Apma basics
(Suru Mwerani dialect)
Good day
Ren mwamak
Good night
Bung mwamak
Are you alright?
Kom gabis?
OK / It's just fine
Te gabis nge
Thank you
Kobiah
Yes
Ioh
No
Tebu
What's your name?
Ham ah itan?
My name is...
Hak ah...
I am from...
Nana atsi at...
Where are you going?
Ko ban ibeh?
Where have you come from?
Ko tepma ibeh?
Come here!
Kopma dokah!
Go away!
Ko iang!
I would like...
Nam dooni...
one, two, three
bwaleh, karu, katsil
It's finished
Tenok
He speaks our language!
Mwaililngi daleda!
Pardon?
Tegap?
I don't know
Natbaililngi nga
I don't understand
Natba rong dihi nga
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First-year pupils at Torle Primary School learning to read and write in Apma
With Buletangsuu Pascal Temwakon, another man with a passion for writing down Apma language, at his house in Melsiisii
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 Apma language
Language code: app
Apma language is spoken by around 7,800 people in the central part of Pentecost Island. It is the largest of Pentecost's vernacular languages, and the fifth largest in Vanuatu as a whole.
The Suru Mwerani dialect of Apma is thriving, and its number of speakers is increasing due to population expansion and the marriage of Central Pentecost women into other areas of Vanuatu, where they then bring up Apma-speaking children. However, the spread of Suru Mwerani threatens to overrun Apma's smaller northern dialects, and the neighbouring language of Ske to the south. Another small neighbouring language, Sowa, has already been wiped out by Apma.
Dialects and range
Apma has three modern dialects:
- Suru Mwerani - the largest and southernmost dialect, spoken in Melsisi, Tansip, Vanrasini and surrounding villages. Mixed with Suru Rabwanga in Bwatnapni, Enaa, Wutsunmwel and Naruwa. Also spoken in the former Sowa area between Melsisi and Ranmawot, including Ranwadi and Waterfall village.
- Suru Rabwanga (Suru Bo) - the central dialect, spoken in the mountainous area between Bwatnapni and Namaram.
- Suru Kavian - a small and very distinctive dialect, spoken in the area north of Namaram.
Two other likely Apma dialects, Asuk (Asa) to the south-west and Wolwolan (Volvoluana) to the north, are now extinct.
Research on Apma
A description of Suru Mwerani dialect was completed by Cindy Schneider at the University of New England in 2008. Her Grammar of Apma language is soon to be published by Pacific Linguistics. I am extremely grateful for Cindy's help and encouragement in my own work on Apma (and Pentecost's languages in general).
While on Pentecost I teamed up with local intellectual Buletangsuu Pascal Temwakon to produce Bongmehee, a 4850-word illustrated dictionary in Suru Mwerani / Bislama / English.
French Catholic missionaries based at Melsisi produced some early materials on Apma language. Père Tattevin, a French Catholic priest who lived on Pentecost in the early 20th century, produced word lists in 'Melsisi' and 'Namaram' languages with French translations. There are also two short manuscripts on Apma grammar written by early missionaries at Melsisi: Quelque Notes de Grammaire by Eduoard Loubières (1911) and Grammaire de Melsisi by Père Niel. The originals of these are kept in the archives of the Catholic Diocese at the Bishop's Office in Sacré Coeur, Port Vila.
Darrell Tryon's 1976 survey of all Vanuatu's languages (New Hebrides Languages: An Internal Classification) includes a
list of basic words in Apma, apparently in Suru Rabwanga dialect.
Other linguistic papers on Apma include:
- Note grammaticale sur la langue de Melsisi, île de
Pentecôte, Nouvelles-Hébrides. by André Haudricourt (1960) in the Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 16.113-16. This includes a short extract by Père Paul Monnier describing possessive grammar in Apma.
- Phonological correspondences between Raga, Apma and Mota: a historically oriented comparison of three languages from Northern Vanuatu by David Walsh (1982). Available in the Vanuatu National Library.
- Images corporelles à travers le vocabulaire anatomique des
Surimarani (Centre Pentecôte), by Annie Walter (1985), edited by Office de la Recherche Scientifique et
Technique Outre-Mer (Mission ORSTOM). This French paper gives a detailed account of anatomical terminology in Suru Mwerani.
Pentecost: An island in Vanuatu by Genevieve Mescam (1989), a brief look at Central Pentecost culture illustrated with designs from custom mats, includes some Apma terminology.
Apma names for local plants and trees are included in various botanical publications, including:
- A guide to the common trees of Vanuatu: With lists of their traditional uses & ni-Vanuatu names
 by J. I. Wheatley (1994), edited by the Vanuatu Department of Forestry. A fantastic book which includes the names of various trees in Suru Rabwanga.
- Introduction à la végétation, à la flore et aux noms vernaculaires de l'île de Pentecôte (Vanuatu) by Pierre Cabalion and Ph. Marat (1983) in Journal d'Agriculture Traditionelle et Botanique 30,3-4:1974-246. Includes the Latin and vernacular names of a huge number of local trees and plants, although you need to be a Frenchman to make sense of some of the spellings.
- Les kavas de Vanuatu: cultivars de Piper methysticum by Vincent Lebot and Pierre Cabalion (1986), edited by l'ORSTOM. Includes the Apma names of different kava varieties.
Literacy
Apma has a reasonably well-established orthography (with slight regional variation), and a few custom stories and religious materials have been produced in the language (see below). However, there is not a substantial tradition of writing in Apma.
At least one primary school in Central Pentecost has now begun teaching vernacular literacy in Apma to first-year pupils; others may soon follow.
Materials in Apma
Custom stories
- Dut at le kidi by Silas Buli and Clement Tabi (1985), published by USP. A collection of custom stories in Suru Mwerani narrated by Chief Resis Tabi and Chief Frank Tabi.
- Dut bi Mamap Lelan non Havakni (Pentecost) by Alfreda Mabonlala (1986), published by USP. A collection of "stories and games for children" in Suru Mwerani, with English and French translations.
- Top nan vini nada, edited by Cindy Schneider (2007). Ten custom stories in Suru Mwerani, with English translations.
- Stories in Apma language, edited by Bruce Tabi (of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre) and Andrew Gray (2008). Custom stories written and illustrated by local schoolchildren in a mixture of Suru Mwerani and Suru Rabwanga.
Religious materials
A few liturgical materials have been produced in Apma, mostly in association with the Catholic church at Melsisi. Parts of the New Testamanet were translated by Morrie Tabi at Wutsunmwel in 1977, but few copies survive.
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