Sawai language

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Sawai
Weda
Native toIndonesia
RegionNorth Maluku province
Native speakers
12,000 (2000)[1]
Language family
Austronesian
Dialects
  • Weda
  • Sawai
  • Kobe
  • Faya-Mafa
  • Messa-Dote
Language codes
ISO 639-3szw
Glottologsawa1247
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The Sawai language (also Weda) is a South Halmahera language of Austronesian stock spoken in the Weda and Gane Timor districts of southern Halmahera, northern Maluku Province, Indonesia. There are approximately 12,000 speakers.

Sounds[]

Below is a description of the Kobe dialect of Sawai spoken in the villages of and .

Consonants[]

Sawai has 14 consonants:

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Stop p  b t  d   k  ɡ
Fricative f s    
Nasal m n   ŋ
Semivowel w   j  
Lateral   l    

Vowels[]

Sawai has 7 vowels:

  Front Back
High i u
High-Mid e o
Low-Mid ɛ ɔ
Low a

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

References[]

  1. ^ Sawai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

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.
  • Whistler, Ronald; & Whistler, 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.
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