While Anejom̃ is now considered to be only one language, some historical reports have suggested that Anejom̃ might have consisted of two very distinct dialects.[gr 1] The first speakers of the language are believed to have lived on hillsides near coasts in order to access resources.However, due to land degradation and population pressure, the speakers moved to the valleys.[2] Aneityum is thought to have been settled around 874 BCE +/- 60 years by people coming over from Tanna.Original settlers (and speakers of the language) are thought to have lived on hillsides near the coasts in order to access resources from the ocean and land.[gr 2] However, the combination of land degradation and population forced the Aneityumese to move onto valley flats instead.[gr 2] The original political system was like much of Melanesia; it was composed of multiple chiefs (natimarid) ruling over many chiefdoms (neclau).[gr 1] The first contact with Europeans was in 1830, when the brig Alpha landed in Aneityum with hopes of establishing a sandalwood trading business.Most of the population was decimated by two major epidemics in the 1830s and 1840s and never fully recovered as can be seen below:[gr 3] Like much of the rest of Melanesia, the church has played an important role in language ideology on Aneityum.[gr 1] With the large missionary presence on the island, many schools were founded to spread the message of Christianity.[5] It was considered to be a fairly good orthography of its time (having a one-to-one correspondence between letters and phonemes); however, it did contain several key problems.[gr 6] Stops and affricates in Anejom̃ change in voicing depending on where they occur between segments as described and illustrated below.'However, 'di' is "inherently singular" and requires a coordinate phrase with im, as seen in the example here, to express plurality.[gr 14] In Anejom̃, demonstrative pronouns can also take the suffix -sak which denotes that the speaker is "pointing at or in some other way indicating the location of the thing referred to.[gr 17] Locative nouns in Anejom̃ do not need the case marker "a" to occur in front of it as shown in the example below.[gr 19] etma-nfather-his/heretma-nfather-his/her'his/her father'etma-rafather-their.PLetma-rafather-their.PL'their father'There are some nouns that do not take direct suffixation but rather use possessive markers such as the word for "child", "nephew", "niece", and "sister," to name a few.[gr 20] Animate nouns are usually marked by using the subject marker "a" for singular and the prefix "elpu-" for plural.[gr 22] Anejom̃ also has a different set of prefixes that are referred to as collective prefixes, as they refer to large groups of things:[gr 23] (not the same nupu- prefixin the previous table) In Anejom̃, the possessive form of personal pronouns are attached directly to the noun when "the possessor is a personal pronoun".[gr 30] In a verb phrase, a subject marking morpheme tends to occur first (except if it is an imperative, optionally conjoined, or subordinate clause).[gr 39] Locative demonstratives that are formed by adding the locative suffixes to the root au- must follow a specific order:[gr 39] Marked temporal phrases and place phrases (that don't have a non-personal noun at the head), take the case marker 'a'.[gr 43] [Ekrau1EXC.DU.AORedouroamajamrau],we.EXCL.DU[ek1SG.AORap̃ahnigo.everywhereañakIera-iLOC-CSiji-teptagCOL-nakamalasga].all[Ekrau edou ajamrau], [ek ap̃ahni añak era-i iji-teptag asga].1EXC.DU.AOR roam we.EXCL.DU 1SG.AOR go.everywhere I LOC-CS COL-nakamal all'We wandered around and I went to every single nakamal.[gr 44] 'Jai'[gr 44] [Eris3PL.AORakrousharem-alp̃a-iES-give-TRcama],us.EXCL.PL.Ojaibut[is3SG.PASTp̃arSEQhan]...enough[Eris akrou m-alp̃a-i cama], jai [is p̃ar han]...3PL.AOR share ES-give-TR us.EXCL.PL.O but 3SG.PAST SEQ enough'They shared it out to us, but there was enough...''Jam'[gr 44] [Eris3PL.PASTagomakekavakavalum̃a-nPOSS.D-hisaara]they.PLjambut.SS[agomakeis3SG.PASTerou].two[Eris ago kava lum̃a-n aara] jam [ago is erou].3PL.PAST make kava POSS.D-his they.PL but.SS make 3SG.PAST two'They made his kava, but they made two (bowls).[gr 45] Most of the verb-serializations in Anejom̃ contain directional motion verbs in the non-initial clause as seen below:[gr 45] [IsPASTm̃anPERFlepagainrectidaiget.upaataj]they.TRI[apangoa-nlii-iLOC-inside-CSniom̃]house[Is m̃an lep rectidai aataj] [apan a-nlii-i niom̃]PAST PERF again get.up they.TRI go LOC-inside-CS house'They three got up again and went inside the house.