Rangelov, TihomirBratrud, TomBarbour, Julie ReneeAustin, P.K.2019-08-0620192019-08-062019Rangelov, T., Bratrud, T., & Barbour, J. R. (2019). Ahamb (Malekula, Vanuatu) - Language Contexts. Language Documentation and Description, 16, 86–126.1740-6234https://hdl.handle.net/10289/12751The Ahamb language is spoken by around 950 people, most of whom reside on the small Ahamb Island off the south coast of Malekula, the second largest island in the Republic of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. Ahamb is one of more than 30 languages of Malekula, and little was known about it until 2017 when a major language documentation project was initiated. In this paper we present the linguistic, geographic and social context in which Ahamb is spoken, assess its current vitality status, and consider prospects for its future. It is hoped that outputs of the Ahamb Documentation Project will boost the status of the language and increase literacy levels, counteracting external pressures to shift to the regional lingua franca Bislama.application/pdfenThis article is published under a Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial). The licence permits users to use, reproduce, disseminate or display the article provided that the author is attributed as the original creator and that the reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes i.e. research or educational use. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Ahamb languageMalekulaOceanicvernacular literacylanguage endangermentJournal Article