Lewo

Lewo, also called Varsu or Laewo, is an Oceanic language of the North and Central Vanuatu group, spoken in eastern Epi, a volcanic island at the northern end of the Shepherd Islands. Its surviving dialects, Tasiko, Lemaroro and Maluba, are the remainder of a much larger number, and many words in the other languages of Epi are said to have originated in Lewo.

Its closest relative is Lamen, with which it shares about four-fifths of its vocabulary. Unusually for an Oceanic language, Lewo marks four grades of spatial deixis: near the speaker, near the hearer, near both, and distant or unknown.

The Shepherd Islands were charted and named by James Cook in 1774. In the nineteenth century Epi suffered severe depopulation, and mission influence drew its inland communities into coastal villages and redrew its linguistic map.