Ambrym

North Ambrym is an Oceanic language spoken in the northern part of Ambrym, the volcanic island at the heart of Vanuatu, where it shares the coast only with the small Fanbyak language; related tongues occupy the south and east. Two main dialects survive, the Western dialect of Lonhali and the North-Eastern dialect of Wowan, levelled from an earlier five or six as communities moved down to the coast.

Its grammar marks four pronoun numbers, singular, dual, paucal and plural, with inclusive and exclusive first person, and splits nouns into directly and indirectly possessed. The island's name is traditionally traced to James Cook, who sailed past it in 1774, although his expedition never landed.