Lenakel

Lenakel, whose speakers call it Netvaar, is a dialect chain of the Austronesian family spoken along the western coast of Tanna in southern Vanuatu. It is one of five indigenous languages on the island, belonging with them to the Southern Vanuatu subgroup, and shades into neighbouring Whitesands and North Tanna through a continuum of dialects.

Tanna was settled around 400 BC by Melanesian seafarers, and its languages developed in isolation until James Cook, drawn by the glow of the Yasur volcano, landed at Port Resolution in August 1774 and gave the island its name, from a local word meaning earth.

From 1804 whaling ships called regularly, and in 1825 the trader Peter Dillon anchored at Port Resolution, opening the era of sandalwood commerce. Lenakel had no script of its own and was transmitted only by speech.