Sa or Saa language is an
Austronesian language spoken in southern
Pentecost Island
Pentecost Island is one of the 83 islands that make up the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.
It lies due north of capital Port Vila. Pentecost Island is known as in French and in Bislama. The island was known in its native languages by ...
,
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
. It had an estimated 2,500 speakers in the year 2000.
Dialects and range
Sa has numerous dialects, with no well-established names or boundaries. At a meeting in 2008, speakers recognised four main dialects, with sub-dialectal variation and mixing of dialects in some areas.
The two central dialects are relatively similar to one another and are generally understood by all Sa speakers. Most writing and research in Sa has been in one of these dialects:
* A western dialect ("Saa" with a long ''a'') is spoken on the west coast around Panas, Wali, Panngi and Ranputor.
* An eastern dialect ("Sa" with a short ''a'') is spoken in the south-east around Ranwas. A variant of this dialect with longer vowels in certain words is spoken at Poinkros in the far south, and is used in the Bible Society's recent Gospel translations.
There are also two outlying dialects, which are highly distinctive and difficult for speakers of other dialects to understand:
* A northern dialect ("F dialect"), characterised by the presence of an ''f'' sound, is spoken in the north of the Sa area, at St Henri (Fatsare) and by some at Ran'gusuksu. It has close links with neighbouring
Ske language and with Doltes, the extinct dialect of Hotwata village.
* A southern dialect ("Ha"), notable for the widespread replacement of ''s'' with ''h'', is spoken in Bay Martelli (Harop) and Londar, and has close links with the languages of neighbouring
Ambrym
Ambrym is a volcanic island in Malampa Province in the archipelago of Vanuatu. Volcanic activity on the island includes lava lakes in two craters near the summit.
Etymology
Ambrym (also known as ''Ambrin'', ''"ham rim"'' in the Ranon language ...
island.
The distinctive speech of villages such as
Bunlap, Bay Barrier (Ranon) and Wanur appears to comprise mixtures of neighbouring dialects.
People in southern Pentecost remember the existence of additional dialects that are now extinct.
Phonology
The
consonants
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
of Sa include b, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, ng (as in English "singer"), p, r, s, t, and w. In most dialects there is also j (occasionally written "ts"), which is apparently an
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
of ''t'' found before the vowels ''i'' and ''u'' although speakers regard it separately. Most speakers also use labiovelar bw, mw and pw, although from some speakers of outlying dialects these are indistinguishable from normal ''b'', ''m'' and ''p''. In addition to these consonants, the northern dialect has a bilabial f. In this dialect ''s'' may be pronounced like English ''sh''.
As a general rule, clusters of consonants do not occur within a syllable. Word roots may begin with a pair of consonants, but in speech the first of these consonants is usually either dropped or attached to the final syllable of the preceding word.
In addition to the five standard
vowels
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
(a, e, i, o and u), Sa is generally believed to have additional mid-high vowels ê (intermediate between ''e'' and ''i'') and ô (intermediate between ''o'' and ''u''). Not all authors have recognised these extra vowels, but they have been accepted by local teachers of vernacular literacy and are used in the Bible Society's recent Gospel translations. Vowels are distinguished for length, with long vowels (aa, ee, etc.) often occurring where a consonant has historically been lost. Vowels can occur alone or in various combinations.
Stress is normally on the penultimate syllable of a word. However, syllables that end with a consonant or a long vowel take stress in precedence to other syllables.
Grammar
Basic word order in Sa is
subject–verb–object.
Pronouns
Personal pronouns are distinguished by
person
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
and
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
. They are not distinguished by
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...
. With one exception, subject and object pronouns are identical.
The singular and plural pronouns are as follows:
In addition, there are dual pronouns (referring to two people), which incorporate the particle ''kô'', and paucal pronouns (referring to a small number of people), which incorporate the particle ''têl'' or ''pat''.
Nouns
Nouns in Sa are not preceded by
articles.
Plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
ity is indicated by placing the pronoun ''êr'' ("them") or a number after the noun.
Nouns may be either free, or directly possessed. Directly possessed nouns are followed either by a suffix or a noun indicating whom an item belongs to. For example:
:''sêk'' = my name
:''sêm'' = your name
:''sên'' = his/her name
:''sê temak'' = my father's name
The possessive suffixes are as follows:
Possession may also be indicated by the use of the word ''na-'' "of" (or ''a-'' in the case of food items), followed either by a possessive suffix or the name of the possessor:
:''nak ôl'' = my coconut (belonging)
:''nam ôl'' = your coconut (belonging)
:''nan ôl'' = his/her coconut (belonging)
:''ôl na selak'' = my brother's coconut (belonging)
:''ak ôl'' = my coconut (to eat)
:''am ôl'' = your coconut (to eat)
:''an ôl'' = his/her coconut (to eat)
:''ôl natê'' = coconut for it (association)
A verb may be transformed into a noun by the addition of a nominalising suffix ''-an'':
:''wêl'' = to dance (verb)
:''wêlan'' = a dance (noun)
Modifiers generally come after a noun:
:''ere'' = village
:''ere lêp'' = big village
Verbs
Verbs in Sa are usually (though not always) preceded by verb markers indicating the
tense,
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
and
mood of the action.
In positive statements the marker is typically ''m-'', ''ma-'', ''mwa-'', ''me-'' or a variant (depending on the dialect, the verb and the environment). Past and present tense are not explicitly distinguished:
:''nê mlos'' = I bathe / I bathed
:''nê marngo'' = I hear / I heard
In
negative statements this marker is replaced with ''taa-'' or a variant:
:''nê taalos'' = I don't bathe / I didn't bathe
:''nê taarngo'' = I don't hear / I didn't hear
These markers may be combined with a future marker ''t'' or ''te'':
:''nê met los'' = I will bathe
:''nê meterngo'' = I will hear
:''nê taat los'' = I won't bathe
:''nê taaterngo'' = I won't hear
In the
imperative, the future marker occurs without any other marker:
:''O tlos!'' =
oubathe!
:''O terngo!'' =
oulisten!
Hypothetical statements include a particle ''po'':
:''nê metpo los'' = I should bathe
Completed actions are indicated using ''tê'':
:''nê mlos tê'' = I bathed already
The subject can be omitted from a sentence, as in the second example below:
:''i meterngo'' = he will hear it
:''meterngo'' = it will be heard
Transitive and intransitive verb forms are distinguished, with
transitive verb
A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''.
Transiti ...
s often followed by ''nê'':
:''êr rôs'' = they move
:''êr rôsnê at'' = they move the stone
Verbs in Sa can be linked together in a variety of
serial verb construction
The serial verb construction, also known as (verb) serialization or verb stacking, is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more verbs or verb phrases are strung together in a single clause.Tallerman, M. (1998). ''Understanding Syntax''. London: ...
s.
Sample phrases
References
* Crowley, Terry. 2000. The language situation in Vanuatu. ''Current Issues in Language Planning''. Vol 1, No 1.
* Gray, Andrew. 2012. ''The Languages of Pentecost Island''. British Friends of Vanuatu Society.
* Lynch, John and Crowley, Terry. 2001. ''Languages of Vanuatu: A New Survey and Bibliography''. Pacific Linguistics. Canberra: Australian National University.
External links
The Languages of Pentecost Island - further information on Sa* ELAR archive o
A preliminary audiovisual documentation of Ha*
Paradisec
The Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) is a cross-institutional project that supports work on endangered languages and cultures of the Pacific and the region around Australia. They digitise reel- ...
ha
a number of collections with Saa materials including two collections from
Arthur Cappell.
{{Austronesian languages
Languages of Vanuatu
Penama languages