Saʼa (also known as South Malaita and Apaeʼaa) is an Oceanic language spoken on Small Malaita and Ulawa Island in the Solomon Islands. In 1999, there were around 12,000 speakers of the language.
| Saʼa | |
|---|---|
| Region | South Malaita, Solomon Islands |
| Ethnicity | Sa’a people |
Native speakers | (12,000 cited 1999)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | apb |
| Glottolog | saaa1240 |
Phonology
editThe phonemes of Saʼa are listed below.[2]
Consonants
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | |||||
| Plosive | p | pʷ | t | tʃ | k | ʔ |
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
| Nasal | m | mʷ | n | ŋ | ||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||
| Approximant | w | |||||
Vowels
edit| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
References
edit- ^ Saʼa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Ashley, Karen (2012). Semantics of Saʼa transitive suffixes and thematic consonants (PDF) (MA thesis). Dallas International University. pp. 15–16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-04-17.
External links
edit- Palona Haalu Ana Nau Maai Saʼa (1979) A Liturgy for Melanesia in Saʼa, digitized by Richard Mammana and Charles Wohlers
- Materials on Karnai are included in the open access Arthur Capell collection (AC2) held by Paradisec.