The Sawai language (also Weda) is a
South Halmahera language of
Austronesian stock spoken in the
Weda and Gane Timor districts of southern
Halmahera
Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coast of the island.
Ha ...
, northern
Maluku Province
Maluku is a province of Indonesia. It comprises the central and southern regions of the Maluku Islands. The main city and capital of Maluku province is Ambon on the small Ambon Island. The land area is 62,946 km2, and the total population ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. There are approximately 12,000 speakers.
Sounds
Below is a description of the Kobe dialect of Sawai spoken in the villages of
Lelilef Woyebulan and
Kobe Peplis, as well as from Whistler (1995).
Consonants
Sawai has 15
consonant
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 wi ...
s:
Vowels
Sawai has 8
vowel
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 (leng ...
s:
Syllable
Sawai has the following syllable structure:
: (C)(C)V(C)
Examples:
References
Bibliography
* Burquest, Donald A.; & Laidig, Wyn D. (Eds.). (1992). ''Phonological studies in four languages of Maluku''. The Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington publications in linguistics (No. 108). Dallas: The Summer Institute of Linguistics, The University of Texas at Arlington, and Pattimura University. .
* Whistler, Ronald. (1992). Phonology of Sawai. In D. A. Burquest & W. D. Laidig (Eds.), ''Phonological studies in four languages of Maluku'' (pp. 7–32). Dallas: The Summer Institute of Linguistics, The University of Texas at Arlington, and Pattimura University.
* Whistler, Ronald; & Whistler, Jacqui. (1995). Sawai: Introduction and wordlist. In D. T. Tryon (Ed.), ''Comparative Austronesian dictionary: An introduction to Austronesian studies'' (part 1: fascicle 1, pp. 659–65). Trends in linguistics, Documentation (No. 10). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
{{Austronesian languages
South Halmahera–West New Guinea languages
Languages of Indonesia
Halmahera