Lehali (previously known as Teqel) is an Oceanic language spoken by about 200 people, on the west coast of Ureparapara Island in Vanuatu.^[1] It is distinct from Löyöp, the language spoken on the east coast of the same island.

The language is named after the village where it is spoken, natively referred to as Loli [lɔli]. The name Lehali does not have any etymological value, other than being a corruption of the native name.^{[citation needed]}

Lehali phonemically contrasts 16 consonants and 10 vowels.^[3]

Lehali consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Dorsal	Labialized velar	Glottal
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	ŋ ⟨n̄⟩	ŋʷ ⟨n̄w⟩
Stop	voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	k ⟨k⟩	kʷ ⟨q⟩
	prenasalized		ⁿd ⟨d⟩
Fricative		β ⟨v⟩	s ⟨s⟩	ɣ ⟨g⟩		h ⟨h⟩
Approximant			l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩	w ⟨w⟩

The 10 vowel phonemes are all short monophthongs /i ɪ ɛ æ ə a ɒ̝ ɔ ʊ u/:^[4][3]

Lehali vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩		u ⟨u⟩
Near-close	ɪ ⟨ē⟩	ə ⟨ë⟩	ʊ ⟨ō⟩
Open-mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩		ɔ ⟨o⟩
Near-open	æ ⟨ä⟩		ɒ̝ ⟨ö⟩
Open	a ⟨a⟩

The ⟨y⟩ /j/ phoneme originates in a former trill *r: e.g. /-jɔ/ < POc *rua 'two'.^[5] Lehali shares that particular sound change with its neighbors Löyöp, Volow, and Mwotlap.

The system of personal pronouns in Lehali contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, plural).^[6]

Spatial reference in Lehali is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is in part typical of Oceanic languages, and yet innovative.^[7]

• François, Alexandre (2011). "Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence" (PDF). Journal of Historical Linguistics. 1 (2): 175–246. doi:10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra. hdl:1885/29283. S2CID 42217419..
• —— (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.
• —— (2015). "The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages" (PDF). In Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell (eds.). The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. pp. 137–195. hdl:1885/14819. ISBN 978-1-922185-23-5.
• —— (2016). "The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu" (PDF). In Pozdniakov, Konstantin (ed.). Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles. Faits de Langues. Vol. 47. Bern: Peter Lang. pp. 25–60.
• —— (2021). "Presentation of the Lehali language and audio archive". Pangloss Collection. Paris: CNRS. Retrieved 21 Feb 2022.

• Audio recordings in the Lehali language, in open access, by A. François (Pangloss Collection).