Sahu language
| Sahu | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Halmahera |
Native speakers | (7,500 cited 1987)[1] |
West Papuan?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:saj – Sahuibu – Ibu |
| Glottolog | sahu1245 Sahuibuu1240 Ibu |
| ELP | Ibu |
Sahu (Sa’u, Sahu’u, Sau) is a North Halmahera language. Use is vigorous; dialects are Pa’disua (Palisua), Tala’i, Waioli, and Gamkonora. A fifth dialect, Ibu, used to be spoken near the mouth of the Ibu River.[2]
Sahu has many Ternate loanwords, a historical legacy of the dominance of the Ternate Sultanate in the Moluccas.[3]
Phonology[4]
Sahu, like other North Halmahera languages, is not a tonal language.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | |||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | ɠ | |||
| Fricative | f | s | |||||
| Approximant | central | w | j | h | |||
| lateral | l | ||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
When preceding /a/, /o/, and /u/, the consonants /d/, /ɗ/, and /l/ become retroflex (/ɖ/, /ᶑ/, and /ɭ/, respectively). The trill /r/ alternates freely with /ɾ/, but, according to Visser and Voorhoeve, /r/ is the more usual allophone. The glottal /h/ may be realized as /χ/ by educated speakers for certain words deriving from Arabic.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | ||
| Mid | e | ə | o | |
| Low | a | |||
The phoneme /ə/ is only found in loans (primarily from Indonesian).
References
- ^ Sahu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
Ibu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Visser, L. E. and C.L. Voorhoeve. 1987. Sahu-Indonesian-English Dictionary and Sahu Grammar Sketch. Dordrecht: Foris.
- ^ Holton, Gary; Klamer, Marian (2018). "The Papuan languages of East Nusantara and the Bird's Head". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 569–640. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^ Visser, L. E. and C.L. Voorhoeve. 1987. Sahu-Indonesian-English Dictionary and Sahu Grammar Sketch. Dordrecht: Foris.