Valpei

Valpei, also recorded as Valpay or Valpei-Hukua, is an Oceanic language of the Austronesian family, spoken by the Valpay people on the northern tip of Espiritu Santo, the largest island of Vanuatu. It belongs to the West Santo group of the North-Central Vanuatu branch, and the name Valpei-Hukua marks its closeness to the neighbouring Hukua variety.

Vanuatu was first settled by Lapita navigators between about 1100 and 700 BCE, and their speech diversified until Espiritu Santo alone held more than thirty distinct languages.

In May 1606 the Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós anchored in Big Bay on the island's north coast, the first recorded European landing in the archipelago, and clashed with the local people. No other Europeans returned until Louis de Bougainville in 1768 and James Cook in 1774.