- Source: Ngadha language
Ngadha (IPA: [ŋaᶑa], also spelled Ngada, Ngadʼa or Ngaʼda) is an Austronesian language, one of six languages spoken in the central stretch of the Indonesian island of Flores. From west to east these languages are Ngadha, Nage, Keo, Ende, Lio, and Palu'e. These languages form the proposed Central Flores group of the Sumba–Flores languages, according to Blust (2009).
Djawanai (1983) precises that Ngadha somewhat deviates from Austronesian norms, in that words do not have clear cognates and the grammatical processes are different; for example, the Austronesian family of languages makes an abundant use of prefixes or suffixes (which form new words by adding extensions either before or after root-words, such as [per-]form or child[-hood]), whereas the Ngadha language uses no prefixes or suffixes.
Ngadha is one of the few languages with a retroflex implosive /ᶑ /.
Phonology
The sound system of Ngadha is as follows.
= Vowels
=The short vowel /ə̆/ is written ⟨e⟩ followed by a double consonant, since phonetically a consonant becomes geminate after /ə̆/. It is never stressed and does not form sequences with other vowels except where glottal stop has dropped (e.g. limaessa 'six', from lima 'five' and 'essa 'one').
Within vowel sequences, epenthetic [j] may appear after an unrounded vowel (e.g. in /eu/, /eo/) and [w] after a rounded vowel (e.g. in /oe/, /oi/). Double vowels are sequences. Vowels tend to be voiceless between voiceless consonants and pre-pausa after voiceless consonants.
Stress is on the penultimate syllable, unless that contains the vowel /ə̆/, in which case stress is on the final syllable.
= Consonants
=The implosives have been spelled ⟨bʼ dʼ⟩, ⟨ʼb ʼd⟩ and ⟨bh dh⟩. The velar fricatives are spelled ⟨h, gh⟩.
The trill is short, and may have only one or two contacts.
Glottal stop contrasts with zero in initial position, as in inu 'drink', or 'inu 'tiny'. In rapid speech it tends to drop intervocalically.
Phonetically [#C̩CV] words are analyzed as having an initial schwa. In initial position the consonant is always voiced (otherwise the schwa remains). Examples are emma [mma] 'father', emmu [mmu] 'mosquito', enna [nna] 'sand', Ennga [ŋŋa] (name), ebba [bba] 'swadling sling', ebbu [bbu] 'grandparents', Ebbo [bbo] (name), erro [rro] 'sun' – also in medial position with voiceless consonants, as in limaessa [limassa] 'six'.
References
External links
"Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database > Ngadha". abvd.eva.mpg.de. University of Auckland. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Daftar bahasa di Indonesia menurut BPS 2010
- Bahasa Hawu
- Ngadha language
- Flores
- Central Flores languages
- Soʼa language
- Ebu gogo
- John McWhorter
- Indonesian language
- Malay language
- Namut-Nginamanu language
- Rongga language
