Tolomako language
Thus: When labials do occur preceding front vowels they seem to be reflexes of older labiovelars: Compare with Fijian ŋata "snake" (spelt gata).Comparing Tolomako with its close dialect of Tsureviu allows researchers to reconstruct an earlier state, from which most of Sakao can be regularly derived.Thus Tolomako is a very conservative language, whereas Sakao has undergone drastic innovations in its phonology and grammar, both in the direction of increased complexity.However, in older materials, it permitted closed syllables, such as kanam "you (exclusive)" versus kanamu, though this may have been the result of not articulating high vowels after nasals.A missionary with the New Hebrides Mission, Charles E. Yates translated the book of Acts into Tolomaku and this was published by the Melbourne Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1906.