Uripiv language

Uripiv is a language spoken on Vanuatu.

Uripiv is spoken today by about 6,000 people. Literacy rate of Uripiv speakers in their own language is about 10-30%.

The language forms a dialect chain with other nearby languages, namely Wala-Rano and Atchin . Uripiv is the most northerly of these languages. Despite the dialect chain, Uripiv still has 85% of its words in common with Atchin, at the opposite (southern) end.

Uripiv is classified as an Austronesian language, part of the Malayo-Polynesian bulk of this language group. It falls into the Central-Eastern branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages and the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian subbranch of Central Eastern, which includes Uripiv and other Oceanic languages.

It is one of the few well-documented languages that uses the rare bilabial trill.