Torba Province
13°45′S 167°30′E / 13.750°S 167.500°E
Torba (or TorBa) is the northernmost and least populous province of Vanuatu. It consists of the Banks Islands and the Torres Islands.
The province's name is derived from the initial letters of "TORres" and "BAnks".
Population
[edit]
The province has a population of 9,359[1] and an area of 882 square kilometres (341 square miles). Its capital is Sola on Vanua Lava.
Islands
[edit]These are the main islands of Torba Province, excluding smaller and uninhabited islets.
- Banks Islands
| Name | Population | Area in km2 |
|---|---|---|
| Gaua | 2,491 | 342 |
| Kwakéa | 26 | 1.2 |
| Merelava | 647 | 18 |
| Merig | 12 | 0.5 |
| Mota | 683 | 9.5 |
| Motalava | 1,451 | 24 |
| Ra | 189 | 0.5 |
| Ureparapara | 437 | 39 |
| Vanua Lava | 2,597 | 314 |
- Torres Islands
| Name | Population | Area in km2 |
|---|---|---|
| Hiw | 269 | 51 |
| Linua | 0 | 2.5 |
| Lo | 210 | 11.9 |
| Metoma | 13 | 3 |
| Tegua | 58 | 30.8 |
| Toga | 276 | 18.8 |
Languages
[edit]The Torba province has seventeen languages, which are all Oceanic.[2][3] From north to south, they are: Hiw, Lo-Toga, Lehali, Löyöp, Volow, Mwotlap, Lemerig, Vera'a, Vurës, Mwesen, Mota, Nume, Dorig, Koro, Olrat, Lakon, and Mwerlap.[4] With an average of 550 speakers per language, Torba is one of the most linguistically dense areas of Vanuatu, which is itself the country with the highest density of languages per capita in the world.
References
[edit]- ^
"2009 National Census of Population and Housing: Summary Release" (PDF). Vanuatu National Statistics Office. 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ François (2012).
- ^ List and map of the 17 languages of Torba province.
- ^ François et al. (2015).
Bibliography
[edit]- François, Alexandre (2012), "The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF), International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2012 (214): 85–110, doi:10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022, S2CID 145208588
- François, Alexandre; Franjieh, Michael; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Schnell, Stefan (2015), "The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu" (PDF), in François, Alexandre; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Franjieh, Michael; Schnell, Stefan (eds.), The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity, Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access, pp. 1–21, hdl:1885/14819, ISBN 9781922185235.
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