| Sahu | |
| States: | Indonesia |
| Region: | Halmahera |
| Speakers: | 7,500 |
| Date: | 1987 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | West Papuan? |
| Fam2: | North Halmahera |
| Fam3: | Sahu |
| Dia1: | Waioli |
| Dia2: | Pa'disua |
| Dia3: | Gamkonora |
| Dia4: | Tala'i |
| Dia5: | Ibu † |
| Lc1: | saj |
| Ld1: | Sahu |
| Lc2: | ibu |
| Ld2: | Ibu |
| Glotto: | sahu1245 |
| Glottoname: | Sahu |
| Glotto2: | ibuu1240 |
| Glottoname2: | Ibu |
| Elp: | 1789 |
| Elpname: | Ibu |
Sahu (Sa’u, Sahu’u, Sau) is a North Halmahera language. Use is vigorous; dialects are Pa’disua (Palisua), Tala’i, Waioli, and Gamkonora. A fifth dialect, Ibu, used to be spoken near the mouth of the Ibu River.[1]
Sahu has many Ternate loanwords, a historical legacy of the dominance of the Ternate Sultanate in the Moluccas.[2]
Sahu, like other North Halmahera languages, is not a tonal language.
| +Sahu consonant phonemes | Labial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| implosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Approximant | central | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| lateral | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
When preceding /a/, /o/, and /u/, the consonants /d/, /ɗ/, and /l/ become retroflex (pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/, respectively). The trill /r/ alternates freely with pronounced as /link/, but, according to Visser and Voorhoeve, pronounced as /link/ is the more usual allophone. The glottal /h/ may be realized as pronounced as /link/ by educated speakers for certain words deriving from Arabic.
| +Sahu vowel phonemes | Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Low | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
The phoneme /ə/ is only found in loans (primarily from Indonesian).