According to recently recorded oral local history, Vanua Lava was struck by a major earthquake and landslide in 1945 that devastated gardens and hamlets on its north-west coast, as a result of which the Veraʼa community abandoned its previous settlements and resettled to its current main center of residence, the village of Veraʼa (Vatrata).

Veraʼa is located about 4 km from the village of Vetuboso, the largest settlement on Vanua Lava that is inhabited mainly by speakers of the closely related language Vurës.

It is likely that the now de facto loss of the Lemerig language is the result of natural disaster and subsequent resettlement movements.

Examples include *βula "moon" > vulō [fulʊ] and *βanua "island" > vunuō [funuʊ].

Stefan Schnell reports that they “are considered pronominal in nature because they have specific, definite referents and inflect for the same categories as personal pronouns.”[2]: 121 In Veraʼa, direct possession primarily expresses inalienable or inherently given relationships.

The possessum is expressed as a bound noun while the possessor can be expressed as either:[2]: 121 The bound noun possessum will take one of these three possessor constructions as shown below:[2]: 119 nARTgunu-mspouse-2SGn gunu-mART spouse-2SG'your wife / husband'nARTkolo-kback-1SGn kolo-kART back-1SG'my back'nARTvono-nhome-LKeARTQo’person.namen vono-n e Qo’ART home-LK ART person.name'Qo's home'eARTgunu-nspouse-LKeARTNoleenperson.namee gunu-n e NoleenART spouse-LK ART person.name'Noleen's husband'ēnARTneln̄o-voice-’an̄sarapersonēn neln̄o- ’an̄saraART voice- person'voice of a person, i.e. a human voice'ēnARTdeln̄o-ear-’ama’devilēn deln̄o- ’ama’ART ear- devil'ears of a devil / devil ears'In summary the constructions can be described as follows: Indirect possessive constructions primarily express alienable possession, that is a possession that is more easily terminated.

[2]: 133  The different functions of indirect possessive constructions are further explained in Stefan Schnell's A Grammar of Veraʼa: an Oceanic language of North Vanuatu, chapter 6.