Michael speaking West Fataleka

This video was recorded by Sarah Meltzoff in Honiara, the capital city of the Solomon Islands and features Fataleka speaker Michael Kaura. Fataleka was spoken by approximately 6,700 speakers as of 1999. It is a Northern Malaita language of the Malayo-Polynesian group belonging to the Southeast Solomonic group of the Austronesian language family. Fataleka is one of 26 languages comprising the Southeast Solomonic branch of the Oceanic languages, and one of 13 that make up the Malaita grouping. The relative low diversity of these languages when compared to other Melanesian groups suggests that the Solomonic languages diverged in recent history.