Malakula

Malakula serves as an umbrella name for some three dozen closely related Central Vanuatu tongues on Malakula, also spelled Malekula, the second-largest island of Vanuatu. Linguists divide them into northern, eastern and western linkages; a shared trait is the dropping of unstressed syllables, which arose independently in several branches.

Their speakers include the Big Nambas of the north and the Small Nambas of the south-central interior, known for graded pig-killing rituals and, historically, shaping infants' skulls as a mark of rank. Europeans first sighted Malakula during Pedro Fernandez de Quiros's Spanish voyage of 1606, and James Cook visited in 1774, after which British and French settlers and missionaries made it part of the contested New Hebrides.