This is the first description of Vitu, an Oceanic Austronesian language spoken on islands northwest of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. A first-order member of the Meso-Melanesian linkage, Vitu is a conservative Oceanic language showing many typical Oceanic features such as dual pronouns, a complex possessive system, prenominal articles, reduplication and verb serialisation. Vitu is unusual in its lack of the phoneme /s/, the absence of classifiers, the presence of a clear morphological passive and the widespread and multifaceted use of tense-aspect-sequentiality markers. The grammar is thoroughly data-driven and includes two interlinearised folk tales.

This book is available electronically at http://www.sil.org/pacific/png/abstract.asp?id=475

A bound paper copy can be obtained through lr-dats@sil.org.pg.