Savosavo language

Savosavo
Native to Solomon Islands
Region Savo Island, north of Guadalcanal, Central Solomons.
Native speakers
 2,400 (1999)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 svs
Glottolog savo1255[2]

The Savosavo language is an endangered language spoken on Savo, a small volcanic island north of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Savosavo is one of the Central Solomon languages which are part of the Papuan language family, unlike most of the languages in the vicinity, which are members of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family. The nearest Papuan language to Savosavo is Lavukaleve.

Phonology

Savosavo has five vowels and 17 consonants[3].

Vowels
Front Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open a
Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Stop voiceless p t k
voiced b d ɟ g
Fricative voiceless s
voiced β z
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Approximant l ɰ
Trill r

Vowels have no length contrast, and the vowels /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ vary freely between different allophones.

Orthography

The Savosavo language has 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 17 consonants (b, d, g, gh, j, k, l, m, n, gn, ng, p, r, s, t, v, z). This is the Anglican orthography. In the Catholic orthography G is written Q and Gh is written G. In other orthographies Gn is written Ñ and Ng is written N̄.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ Savosavo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Savosavo". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Wegener, Claudia. 2012. A grammar of Savosavo. Berlin: de Gruyter.
  4. ↑ "Savosavo language, alphabet and pronunciation". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 2018-06-07.

References

  • Wegener, Claudia (2006). "Savosavo body part terminology". Language Sciences. 28 (2&ndash, 3): 344&ndash, 359. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2005.11.005.
  • Wegener, Claudia. 2008. A grammar of Savosavo, a Papuan language of the Solomon Islands. PhD dissertation, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen.
  • Wegener, Claudia. 2012. A grammar of Savosavo. Berlin: de Gruyter.

Coordinates: 9°08′S 159°49′E / 9.13°S 159.81°E / -9.13; 159.81

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