Kwara'ae language
| Kwara'ae | |
|---|---|
| Fiu | |
| Native to | Solomon Islands |
| Region | Malaita Island |
Native speakers | 32,000 (1999)[1] |
Language family | Austronesian
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kwf |
| Glottolog | kwar1239 |
The Kwara'ae language (previously called Fiu after the location of many of its speakers) is spoken in the north of Malaita Island in the Solomon Islands. In 1999, there were 32,400 people known to speak the language. It is the largest indigenous vernacular of the Solomon Islands.
Phonology[]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nor. | lab. | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | t | k | kʷ | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡʷ | |||
| Fricative | (f) | s | x~h | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ŋʷ | |||
| Rhotic | ɾ | ||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||
The /f/ sound is merged with /h/. Most speakers of Kwara'ae choose to pronounce /h/ as an /f/ sound in some vocabulary.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Low | a |
The sound [ə] is recognized as an allophone of /a/.[2] There is vowel reduction, so final /i/ and /u/ are often deleted. Before /i/, the vowel /a/ may become [e], forming the diphthong [ei].
References[]
- ^ Kwara'ae at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Macdonald, Daryl Eveline (2010). A Grammar Sketch of Kwaraqae (Master of Arts thesis). University of Waikato. hdl:10289/5755.
External links[]
- Anglican liturgical publications in Kwara'ae from Project Canterbury
Categories:
- Malaita languages
- Languages of the Solomon Islands
- Oceanic language stubs