The nine South Vanuatu languages form a family of the Southern Oceanic languages , spoken in Tafea Province ( Tanna , Aneityum , Futuna , Erromango , and Aniwa ) of Vanuatu .
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1-567: François ( 2015 :18–21) lists the following names and locations for the 9 South Vanuatu languages. Proto-South Vanuatu was reconstructed by John Lynch in 2001. The language, compared to Proto-Oceanic, went through a series of vowel reductions, leading to the creation of a new vowel written as *ə, such as in *na-waiR "fresh water" resulting in Proto-South Vanuatu *nə-wai of the same meaning. However, it also preserves some, but not all final consonants. For example, *tanum "to plant, bury"
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