| Kwaraʼae | |
| Also Known As: | Kwaraqae |
| Nativename: | Fiu |
| States: | Solomon Islands |
| Region: | Malaita Island |
| Date: | 1999 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian |
| Fam3: | Oceanic |
| Fam4: | Southeast Solomonic |
| Fam5: | Malaita – San Cristobal |
| Fam6: | Malaita |
| Fam7: | Northern Malaita |
| Iso3: | kwf |
| Glotto: | kwar1239 |
| Glottorefname: | Kwaraʼae |
The Kwaraʼae or Kwaraqae language is spoken in the West, Central & Eastern regions of Malaita Island in the Solomon Islands. In 1999, there were 32,400 people known to speak the language. It is the largest indigenous vernacular of the Solomon Islands.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nor. | lab. | |||||||
| Stop | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
The /f/ sound is merged with /h/. Most speakers of Kwaraʼae choose to pronounce /h/ as an /f/ sound in some vocabulary.
| High | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /u/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /ɔ/ | ||
| Low | pronounced as /a/ |
The sound [ə] is recognized as an allophone of /a/.[1] There is vowel reduction, so final /i/ and /u/ are often deleted. Before /i/, the vowel /a/ may become [e], forming the diphthong [ei].