Sawai language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sawai (also Weda) is a South Halmahera-Western New Guinea language of Austronesian stock spoken in Weda and Gane Timor districts of southern Halmahera, northern Maluku Providence, Indonesia. There are approximately 12,000 speakers.
Contents |
[edit] Sounds
Below is description of the Kobe dialect of Sawai spoken in the villages of Lelilef Woyebulan and Kobe Peplis.
[edit] Consonants
Sewai has 14 consonants:
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p b | t d | k ɡ | ||
| Fricative | f | s | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Approximant | central | w | j | ||
| lateral | l | ||||
[edit] Vowels
Sawai has 7 vowels:
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| High-Mid | e | o |
| Low-Mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Low | a | |
[edit] Syllable
Sawai has the following syllable structure:
- (C)(C)V(C)
Examples:
| word | gloss | syllable type |
|---|---|---|
| /i/ | 's/he/it' | V |
| /in/ | 'fish' | VC |
| /wo/ | 'alcoholic drink' | CV |
| /npo/ | 's/he/it gives' | CCV |
| /kot/ | 'magic statue' | CVC |
| /nfan/ | 's/he/it goes' | CCVC |
[edit] External links
- Sawai (Ethnologue)
[edit] Bibliography
- Burquest, Donald A.; & Laidig, Wyn D. (Eds.). (1992). Phonological studies in four languages of Maluku. The Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington publications in linguistics (No. 108). Dallas: The Summer Institute of Linguistics, The University of Texas at Arlington, and Pattimura University. ISBN 0-88312-803-9.
- Whistler, Ronald. (1992). Phonology of Sawai. In D. A. Burquest & W. D. Laidig (Eds.), Phonological studies in four languages of Maluku (pp. 7-32). Dallas: The Summer Institute of Linguistics, The University of Texas at Arlington, and Pattimura University.
- Whisler, Ronald; & Whisler, Jacqui. (1995). Sawai: Introduction and wordlist. In D. T. Tryon (Ed.), Comparative Austronesian dictionary: An introduction to Austronesian studies (part 1: fascicle 1, pp. 659-65). Trends in linguistics, Documentation (No. 10). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
