Sawai language explained

Sawai
Nativename:	Weda
States:	Indonesia
Region:	North Maluku province
Speakers:	12,000
Date:	2000
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
Fam4:	Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
Fam5:	South Halmahera–West New Guinea
Fam6:	Halmahera Sea
Fam7:	South Halmahera
Fam8:	Buli
Dia1:	Weda
Dia2:	Sawai
Dia3:	Kobe
Dia4:	Faya-Mafa
Dia5:	Messa-Dote
Iso3:	szw
Glotto:	sawa1247
Glottorefname:	Sawai
Notice:	IPA

The Sawai language (also Weda) is a South Halmahera language of the Austronesian language family spoken in the Weda and Gane Timor districts of southern Halmahera, northern Maluku Province, Indonesia. 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 consonants:

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Stop	pronounced as /ink/  pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/  pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/  pronounced as /ink/
Fricative	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Nasal	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
Semivowel	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
Liquid		pronounced as /ink/  pronounced as /ink/

Vowels

Sawai has eight vowels:

	Front	Central	Back
High	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
High-Mid	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Low-Mid	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
Low		pronounced as /ink/

Syllable

Sawai has the following syllable structure:

(C)(C)V(C)

Examples:

word	gloss	syllable type
pronounced as //i//	's/he/it'	V
pronounced as //in//	'fish'	VC
pronounced as //wo//	'alcoholic drink'	CV
pronounced as //npo//	's/he/it gives'	CCV
pronounced as //kot//	'magic statue'	CVC
pronounced as //nfan//	's/he/it goes'	CCVC

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.